Poorly Linked Market Chain Looms Over Weavers

Weaving a Tilet pattern is painstaking work, that requires careful attention and time, yet the return is little those involved in the work like Habtamu Elito, above, complain.

Gelaneh Zeto, a 36-year old traditional weaver, only knew how to make one kind of Tilet – a colourful pattern that adorns the traditional Ethiopian fabric, Tibeb, when he first came to Addis Abeba. The pattern, branded as Chigign (seedling), was a dual-colour design famous at the time.

Gelaneh acquired the craft from his father, whilst growing up in Gamo Gofa, a zone in the Southern region, 500Km South West of the capital. It is where many communities live in the Dorze highlands and Chencha town, and is a breeding ground for weavers who have honed their skills for generations.

Although predominantly a farmer by trade, Gelaneh’s father was also a part time weaver, supplying orders, which occasionally came from the townspeople. Gelaneh was a casual learner, for he never imagined that he too would become a weaver. His dream was to continue with his education in a nearby town, after he had completed fourth grade, the highest grade available at the school in his locality.

At 14, however, a distant relative from Shiro Meda, the centre serving as a traditional clothes market, located at the north western outskirts of Addis Abeba, made a deal with his father. He took Gelaneh on as an apprentice.

Gelaneh was provided with room and board and supplied with clothes once a year, whilst his father was paid 30 Br to 40 Br during Meskel; a Christian holiday celebrating the discovery of the true cross. A holiday that is observed by the people in Geleneh’s native land.

Gelaneh worked there for three years, learning how to produce many designs in a reasonable time, before venturing out on his own.

Gelaneh is now an expert weaver with 22 years under his belt. He is a member of yetebebegnoch Tibeb, a small micro-enterprise that is part of the textile manufacturing cluster shade, named Gundesh, in Wereda One of Gullele District. The shade contains 50 cooperatives, including; tailors, designers and shops, with the idea of creating a value chain in the garment market.

But, for Gelaneh, life has improved only marginally. After working long hours for six days a week, he only earns a profit of around 1,000 Br a month.

“Though this is much higher than we used to earn back in the day, it is barely enough to raise my kids,” he told Fortune.

Alhough his transformation has moved at a snail’s pace, the same could not be said for the industry he is working in. Gelaneh has been part of a generation of weavers, who have seen the traditional clothes industry grow and change dramatically. The number of people wearing traditional outfits has risen with the advent of modern designs, both for the cut and patterns, according to industry observes that Fortune talked to.

When Gelaneh first started, the few patterns known were limited to Senselet (Chain), Kesha (Sack) and Zenbaba (Palm), and involved only dual colours. They were priced at 10 Br, and later 15 Br, for Ne’tela, a single layer white shawl made of cotton. Today, a shawl is sold in the capital for 150 Br to 180 Br, if it is to be used to make outfits. More over designs are now more intricate and involve many colors.

Export of traditional fabrics has also increased.

In 2004/05, export of hand woven fabrics brought 417,000 dollars into the economy. In the 2011/12 fiscal year, however, this figure climbed up to 4.36 million dollars. The number of frequent exporters also increased from two, in 2004/05, to over 13 by 2011/12.

The number of weavers in the country has also increased to around half a million, according to data from the Ministry of Industry (MoI). It ballooned significantly from what the size was a decade ago. There were 221,848 weaving establishments, 45pc of which were in urban areas, according to a survey conducted by the Central Statistics Agency (CSA) in 2003. In Addis Abeba, there were 70,000 weaving households.

But, the weavers say they are the ones that benefit the least from the trendy use of the traditional outfit and growth of the clothing industry.

“The price margin for the fabrics we sell to shops and what people buy from these shops is wide,” Gelaneh complains.

He remembers selling a Ne’tela for 250 Br to a shop. The shop owner sold it five minutes later for 700 Br, without adding any value, according to Gelaneh.

Weavers are more at the mercy of the traditional clothing stores for any price offered to them. Owners of such stores constitute a large part of their customer base due to a silent transformation on how the market functions. Previously, it was the end user who would directly come to the weaver to order a specific patterned fabric to be made. They would then take it to the tailor themselves and have it turned into an outfit.

It is now the growing number of traditional designer shops, or Tibeb Be’ts, which handle everything, including; ordering the fabric, designing the outfits and tailoring. The convenience of such stores for buyers has made them the preferred choice. Hence, the majority of the orders that weavers get comes from the owners of such shops, or brokers that supply fabrics to them.

Increasingly, weavers, such as Gelaneh, are frustrated; their share of the pie out of this growing industry is shrinking, when compared to the labour they expend. Much of their time is consumed in weaving the fabric, they thus feel entitled to a higher compensation.

Lack of ties to the value chain both horizontally and vertically; the cost of input materials; lack of network with input suppliers; lack of access to adequate financing; and poor cohesion between workers of a small and micro enterprise, have led to the reduction of benefits for users, according to a graduate research thesis on weavers’ cooperatives like the one Gelaneh belongs to in Gullele District, conducted by Hanna Ketselamariam, a masters student at the University of South Africa (UNISA), in December 20, 2012.

To illustrate, weavers use upwards of 20 kinds of coloured thread, just to make a pattern called Zinar. A thread commonly known as Saba is the one currently being used to make Tilet, whose price increased almost six fold in recent years. A single piece of thread costs 6.20 Br, whereas a few years ago it cost just 1.20 Br.

Experts in the industry attribute the availability of a single brand of this particular kind of thread to the price jump. Other brands, available previously, have been put out of the market, according to shop owners who retail inputs for weaving.

Retailers of input materials for weaving usually do not have direct access to distributors, but are third or fourth in the market chain. They would need to buy 1,050 pieces of Saba, at the very least, to buy directly from distributors, which would require the spending of 54,096 Br, not including value added tax (VAT).

Additional yarn is also necessary for the Warp (Der), the lengthwise threads, and the Weft (Mag), horizontal thread, that is used to make the fabric. Gelaneh and other weavers measure the width of a fabric in a unit called Arb, which usually measures 75cm. To make a Ne’tela, weavers usually make a two Arb fabric. For normal sized outfits, they measure three Arbs.

To make a three-Arb-Zinar-fabric, a weaver would have to spend 650 Br on inputs. It also takes two weeks to finish weaving, as they would have to painstakingly slave over the pattern. After such labour is spent, however, the price that Zinar fetches is just 1,100 Br; that is if it is sold to brokers or traditional cloth stores.

Sometimes end users would buy this fabric for 1,500 Br. But, this fortune is rare indeed. “Two orders of Zinar fabric would take me a month to make,” Gelaneh said. “I would only get 1,100 Br in return, without counting my labour, the assistance I receive to lay out the warp, and other additional costs of electricity and water. It’s hardly enough to live on, much less support a family.”

Gelaneh has four children and lives in a house in Shiro Meda.

 

Before the Warp (Der) is ready for weaving it is laid out in thin lines. This job called Madrat is one for which weavers usually seek assistance.

The fabric weavers’ produce could be priced upwards of 2,500 Br, when tailored into an outfit.

“Having a tailor only costs around 150 Br in Shiro – Meda, yet you see in cloth stores inflated prices,” Gelaneh complained.

This is not the case, argue small scale traditional clothes shops, around Shiro – Meda. They themselves have a lot of costs to cover, and have to compete with the more upscale stores in the capital and other major cities.

Tsegehana Mulu is one of these store owners who runs a small shop in the Shiro Meda area, in a space she rents from the government. Before she started this business, in partnership with her sister; Tsege, had worked at a store for five years.

In her store hangs a double strap short dress made from Zinar fabric, which she says sells for 1,800 Br, much cheaper than stores in 22 Mazoria and Tele Medhaniyalem areas, where similar designs could sell for 2,000 Br to 2,500 Br. The change in price, such stores claim, comes from the quality of the designs.

Tsege had to pay 180 Br to have the Zinar fabric, which she bought for 1,300 Br from a broker to be tailored. Alhough she could reduce her costs by ordering directly from a weaver, she chooses to use a broker instead.

“By using a broker, you are ensured timely delivery, even though it is an additional 200 Br to 300 Br to buy from them, rather than directly from a weaver,” she told Fortune. “I only make orders intermittently since business is slow. They would be more likely to give precedence to orders from repeat customers than me.”

An additional 100 Br is spent on finishing cloth, zipper and undergarments.

“Although my profit is marginal, I can’t afford to sell at a higher price because I do not get as many orders as the big stores you see in Bole,” Tsege, who says that business only picks up during wedding seasons in January and April, told Fortune.

She agrees that weavers get little for their labour, but claims this is not unique to them, but small stores like her as well.

The picture Tsege paints of a struggling business is also echoed by a small shop owner on Mikeleland St, who has operated her business for 10 years. Unable to work with the profit margin she gets, which she says could hardly pay a monthly rent of 5,000 Br, among other operational costs, she has decided to close down the shop for good, and return back to the government job she had previously.

Stories of struggle like this, however, change into one of success with the bigger and pricier stores around Bole and upscale traditional designer outfits. They not only design and produce clothes, but also have their own garment factory, from which they export fabric to foreign countries.

Miracle Design, owned and operated by Dawit Melaku, is such a business.

It has three branches, including a traditional clothes store on Cameroon St., across from City of Refuge Church. It is part of a business that runs a design school in Arat Kilo area and a garment outlet, in a building owned by St. Urael Church, on Haile Gebresellasie St.

Dawit’s designs are more elaborate and colourful than normally seen in display windows. Most are gowns designed to be worn for weddings and come at a hefty price. The outfit placed on display inside the design school at Arat Kilo on Tuesday, March 05, 2013, was tagged at 8,000 Br.

“There are many hands that participated in that outfit,” Dawit told Fortune.

These include the 50 employees working in his garment outlet, designers, tailors and those that do finishing work. At one time or another, any outfit to be made for a customer passes through each of their hands.

Costs for the particular gown on display, include weaving a large eight Arb dress for the fabric, developing a design, tailoring and putting in finishing works in place.

“The dress has embroidery, undergarments, a T-wheel and a finishing fabric that helps it dry and not come apart at the seams,” said Dawit.

The Zinar pattern seen at the bottom is a complicated and intricate design that involved more than 20 colors and takes about 15 full days to weave.

 

Elias Girma, a weaver at Gundesh textile manufacturer’s cluster in Gullelle had once witnessed a fabric he weaved and sold for 2000 Br selling for 7000 Br after being made into an outfit, at a Tibeb store on Africa Avenue.

Adding all these factors, the cost of producing the outfit totals 5,000 Br, according to Dawit. He usually adds a 35pc profit margin when he sells them in his store.

“We’re offering our customers designer items that are custom made,” he told Fortune. “We think they are getting their money’s worth.”

Dawit, however, acknowledges that weavers have a long way to go, in order to fine tune the market, as they do with the fabrics.

“Their way of producing is very slow since it is hand-made,” says Dawit. “They are also not tied to the market very well.”

He thinks that weavers should be given appropriate training in design and business knowledge, so that they can benefit from the market. Every year he gives a scholarship to female weavers to enrol into his design school and improve themselves.

“But they have a long way to go,” he says.

For better benefits, weavers need to establish better market ties directly with exporters; and work well within a group or a cluster to increase productivity and output. Additional financing and a shorter chain for the input materials are also essential, according to the research by Hanna on Gullele’s weavers.

The weavers’ SMEs at Gundesh have similar ideas. They have placed their complaints to local officials at the Wereda Small & Micro Enterprises, stating that they have insignificant profit margins and need more space to expand their production capacity and sell outfits in addition to fabrics.

“The complaint about the profit margin is one we hear constantly,” Wondwossen Shibeshi, SME organisation expert at Wereda One of Gullele District, told Fortune.

These are the same complaints echoed when Kuma Demekssa, mayor of the city, visited the shade last year.

But, this is unpalatable to the local officials, for, they argue allocating different jobs for one enterprise limits the variety of jobs that they can create, if they rather create market chains.

“Gundesh is designed to be a cluster that employs people from different sectors,” Wondwossen told Fortune.

The weavers’ however were given a display centre for their fabrics, even if they cannot produce finished products. In order to better increase cohesion between weavers, the Wereda is reorganising weavers’ SME’s as cooperatives. Since cooperatives are required to keep a single financing system, the individuals within the cluster will be more likely to work as a team and increase production, according to Wondwossen.



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