Technical Report Helping Mali Learn to Compete—Next Steps for Mali’s Leather and Textile Exports to the United States Mali Policy Analyses and Private Sector Strengthening

SUBMITTED TO USAID/Mali

SUBMITTED BY Nathan–MSI Group B. Lynn Salinger and Patti Y. Carpenter, Associates for International Resources and Development (AIRD) Cambridge, MA

IN RESPONSE TO PCE-I-00-98-00016-00 808

September 2001 Technical Report Helping Mali Learn to Compete—Next Steps for Mali’s Leather and Textile Exports to the United States Mali Policy Analyses and Private Sector Strengthening

SUBMITTED TO USAID/Mali

SUBMITTED BY Nathan–MSI Group B. Lynn Salinger and Patti Y. Carpenter, Associates for International Resources and Development (AIRD) Cambridge, MA

IN RESPONSE TO PCE-I-00-98-00016-00 808

September 2001 CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... ii INTRODUCTION...... 1 TEXTILE AND CLOTHING EXPORTS UNDER AGOA: OPPORTUNITIES AND LIMITATIONS ...... 2 INDUSTRY BEST PRACTICES ...... 6 Industrial Garment Manufacture...... 6 Lean Retailing...... 7 Mass Customization...... 8 Understanding the U.S. Market ...... 8 U.S. Interest in Foreign Supply: How to Get Orders ...... 9 Difficulties to Overcome Upon Receipt of Orders...... 10 Alternative Trade Organizations...... 10 New Market Outlets ...... 11 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCES IN THE MALIAN TEXTILE AND CLOTHING SECTOR..... 12 Hand-Processed Cotton Jacquard Fabrics ...... 13 Bogolan...... 15 Hand-Worked Leather Products...... 16 Table-top Accessories ...... 17 New Product Designs ...... 17 THE AUGUST 2001 NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL GIFT FAIR ...... 18 ISSUES AND RECOMMENDATIONS...... 20 Raw Materials Availability...... 20 Import Duties on Raw Materials Destined for Export ...... 20 Production Capacity...... 20 Quality Consistency ...... 22 Reliability of Local Suppliers...... 22 Industrial Technology and Capital Constraints...... 22 Pricing ...... 23 Building Export Logistics Capacity ...... 23 Visibility ...... 24 Formalities of AGOA...... 26 THE WAY FORWARD...... 26 Seeking Foreign Investment...... 26 Strategic Emphases For Mali...... 27 Prioritization of Next Steps ...... 27 LIST OF PERSONS CONTACTED IN MALI...... 29 ALTERNATIVE TRADE ORGANIZATIONS IN U.S...... 31 REFERENCES...... 32

i EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This paper reports on progress made in attempting to develop Mali’s leather and textile value- added processing industries and exports to the U.S. in the context of market access opportunities available to Mali as a result of the October 2000 passage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act by the U.S. Government.

While reductions in trade tariffs into the U.S. should stimulate African exports to the U.S., this activity’s experience suggests that other non-tariff, non-trade institutional barriers – such as the difficult local private sector environment and the near-absence of Malian firms’ strategic market plans focused on understanding and penetrating the U.S. market – conspire to further challenge would-be producers for export. A land-locked geographical location, cost biases, lack of previous experience with manufacturing and export to world markets, weak workforce skills in both technical and managerial areas, limited openness to innovation, minimal linkages to global diasporas of expatriate Malian entrepreneurs, and underdeveloped entrepreneurship for creating new areas of comparative advantage all contribute to the lack of export dynamism.

Mali’s comparative advantage probably does not lie in the manufacture of commodity clothing items for sale to the United States. Mali’s land-locked location and unskilled-yet-not-cheap labor preclude such a strategy. Eleven African countries (Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, and Uganda) have now qualified for AGOA apparel benefits, giving them a distinct advantage as foreign and local investors gear up to expand garment exports to the U.S. On the other hand, Mali enjoys unique cultural attributes in music, film, and the visual arts which also translate to its textile arts. Pursuit of a high-end design strategy for high-quality textiles and leather goods – apparel, footwear, home furnishings, and the like – which incorporate Malian skills in weaving, dyeing, color, and tailoring into products that appeal to western consumers and can retail in up-scale shops in the U.S. offers a more promising commercial niche for Malian goods.

In developing samples of five such product lines for exhibit at the August 2001 New York International Gift Fair, AIRD began to test the feasibility of pursuing such a strategy. The most serious issues identified by the team have to do with the limited production capacity on the part of small-scale Malian producers, lack of consistent quality standards, industrial technology and capital constraints, unrealistic export pricing by producers, lack of experienced export agents in Mali who are trained in the sourcing and supervision of high-end product manufacture, the need for enhanced visibility of Mali and its textile sector vis-à-vis potential U.S. clients, and lack of a private-public sector strategy in Mali for addressing the country-of-origin visa requirements of the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

Implementation of a longer term coaching model for addressing these constraints should include workforce training and marketing assistance. Longer term training needs for improving Malians’ technical capacities and developing an emergent level of commercial networks include technical training in fabric and leather dyeing, leather tanning, fine sewing and tailoring, and product development; management training; professional association development; and training in marketing, export, and trade finance.

ii Helping Mali Learn to Compete: Next Steps for Mali’s Leather and Textile Exports to the U.S.

INTRODUCTION

Trade economists traditionally considered natural resource endowments and costs of local factors of production to be the chief determinants of trade flows in a competitive market environment. Over time, this traditional model has been modified to include consideration of imperfect competition, skills, innovation and technology, economic geography, economic policy frameworks, institutions, quality differences, industrial structure, socio-culture, and many other variables.

However, trade policy analysis still focuses much of its attention on trade tariffs. Because trade tariffs are seen by analysts as major impediments to freer trade flows, it is assumed that reductions in tariffs faced by least developed countries should result in increased exports from these countries to industrial markets. Such logic drives global, regional, and bilateral trade talks around the world.

Yet there are many barriers to trade which have little to do with tariffs or trade policies and public institutions per se. How is it that NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada have replaced China, Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan as the largest regional supplier of apparel to the U.S. market, despite average wages being lower in Asia? How can countries like Bangladesh and Mauritius have become such thriving garment export hubs without obvious natural resource bases in fiber production? Why does sub-Saharan Africa, which is a major world producer of cotton fiber, not participate more actively in textiles and clothing industry manufacturing and trade?1 What role has foreign direct investment played in the important leaps in textiles/clothing exports experienced by some sub-Saharan African countries?

The local private sector environment and the business strategies (or lack thereof) practiced by firms have a lot to do with these questions. A land-locked geographical location, lack of previous experience with manufacturing and export to world markets, weak workforce skills in both technical and managerial areas, limited openness to innovation, minimal linkages to global diasporas of expatriate Malian entrepreneurs, and underdeveloped entrepreneurship for creating new areas of comparative advantage all contribute to lack of export dynamism despite an apparent endowment in natural resources (cotton fiber production) and low-cost labor.

As part of its economic growth strategic objective, USAID/Mali has supported a package of policy analyses and private sector strengthening workshops, carried out in conjunction with the Malian Ministry of Industry and Trade. One of these is an analysis of export prospects for textiles and tanned leather products. Access to the U.S. market was presumably enhanced with passage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).This paper reports on the

1 This set of questions was explored at a panel session, “Cotton and Textile Production in the Global Trading System: Where Does Africa Stand?,” of the August 2000 conference of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (Berlin, Germany). Baffes (2000) looks at cotton policy reforms undertaken by several East and West African countries. 1 experiences made in attempting to develop Mali’s leather and textile value-added processing industries and exports to the U.S.

In 1999 AIRD economist Lynn Salinger and two textile milling specialists examined prospects for exports from Mali’s spinning and weaving industries. They concluded that large investments would be required to upgrade Mali’s industrial capacity. Given the difficulties of doing business in Mali, large scale capital inflows were unlikely in the present environment. The evaluation pointed rather to a downstream, labor-intensive, value-added textile processing industry whose custom products could be adapted to western consumer tastes in much more profitable markets. The following year, Salinger met artisanal and industrial producers in the sector and returned with product design specialist Patti Carpenter to identify feasible product ranges. Ms. Carpenter returned in May-June 2001 to develop a line of leather- and textiles-based products for export to the U.S. These were shown at the New York International Gift Fair in August 2001.

This document details the experiences gained during this set of activities. A review of market opportunities, AGOA progress to date across Africa, progress made in the development and marketing of Malian products for export to the U.S., constraints identified to date, and an appraisal of what steps Mali needs to take in order to implement a strategy that will take advantage of these opportunities is presented below.

TEXTILE AND CLOTHING EXPORTS UNDER AGOA: OPPORTUNITIES AND LIMITATIONS 2

The African Growth and Opportunity Act offers sub-Saharan African exporters of apparel to the U.S. an average 17.5% duty advantage, relative to non-African suppliers. In addition, the Act offers duty-free access to the U.S. market for hand-loomed, handcrafted, and folkloric articles, as well as an additional 1,835 non-textile products not previously included under the Generalized System of Preferences. This report, however, will focus on the apparel benefit only, and its potential impact for Malian textile and leather firms.

There are several requirements which African countries must meet in order to qualify for AGOA. Countries with economic and political policies in place that promote open markets and political systems, implement policies to reduce poverty, make efforts to fight corruption, protect human rights and the rights of workers, and eliminate child labor practices are eligible for AGOA benefits. Mali has already qualified for such eligibility, given its strong reform record. The second requirement is implementation of a certificate of origin customs visa. This form – insisted upon as a process for preventing illegal transshipment through Africa from non-AGOA sources – is subject to approval by the U.S. Government. To our knowledge, Mali is not yet working to establish an acceptable visa form with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The experience of Uganda suggests that this can be a lengthy process, entailing several months of drafting and revision. Should Mali hope to export apparel to the U.S. at some future point, it would behoove officials to get organized soon. Finally, countries must agree to make their industries open and available to U.S. Customs Service inspection teams, and individual firms

2 The first two sections were originally drafted for inclusion in a report on Uganda’s textile and clothing export prospects (Salinger 2001a). 2 must maintain records of raw materials, employment, production equipment, and sales for five years after export for possible review by the U.S. Customs officials.

Once a country meets these conditions, AGOA offers duty-free access to the U.S. market for African apparel items made of fabric and yarns originating either in the U.S. or in eligible sub- Saharan African countries. In addition, for the continent’s poorest members, including Mali, third-country raw material sources are allowable until September 30, 2004. This latter provision is important, for it allows Mali to “jump-start” its garment make-up sector into exports, using fabric which can be imported from leading suppliers around the world. At the same time, it sets a deadline by which time African fiber, yarn, and fabric (or U.S.-sourced raw materials) must be used in the garment industries in order to continue to benefit through the life of the treaty, which expires on September 30, 2008.

AGOA does not offer duty-free access for non-apparel textile products. Non-clothing textile products presently produced in Mali, such as home furnishings, handbags and carrying cases, and cloth art, would be taxed upon importation into the U.S. according to the rates specified in the U.S. Harmonized Tariff System (HTS). Current rates for some of these products are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Normal Trade Relations Rates for Specific Textile Items HTS Product description Ad valorem category rate 42029260 Bags, cases, with outer surface of cotton 6.6

62089110 Women’s bathrobes & dressing gowns, of cotton 7.8

63022130 Bed linens, of cotton, printed, containing trimmings, napped 15.5 63022150 Bed linens, of cotton, printed, containing trimmings, not napped 21.8 63022170 Bed linens, of cotton, printed, not containing trimmings, napped 4.0 63022190 Bed linens, of cotton, printed, not containing trimmings, not napped 7.0 63025110 Tablecloths & napkins, of damask cotton 6.3 63041905 Bedspreads, not knitted or crocheted, of cotton, containing trimmings 12.5 63041910 Bedspreads, not knitted or crocheted, of cotton, not containing trimmings 4.6

64039990 House slippers, leather sole, valued over $2.50/pair 10.0 64052030 Other footwear, with uppers of textile materials 7.5

94049010 Pillows, of cotton 5.5 94049020 Pillows, other than of cotton 6.0 Source: U.S. International Trade Commission database (http://dataweb.usitc.gov/scripts/tariff/toc_page_1.html) Note: HTS = Harmonized Tariff Schedule “Trimmings” includes embroidery, lace, braid, edging, trimming, piping, or appliqué

Some early experiences with AGOA have been frustrating. In a potential upset to Mauritian knit sweater exports to the U.S. and to South African suppliers of yarns into Mauritius, a sample order of lamb’s wool sweaters were subject in February 2001 to duty by the Customs Service upon arrival in the U.S. The Customs Service argued that the knit-to-shape panels from which the sweaters are assembled are not “fabric,” and thus not eligible for duty-free consideration into the U.S. market. The interpretation was sharply rebuked by the originators of the Act in the U.S. 3 House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee and by the National Retail Federation in the U.S.3

Although there is no limit on the export volume of garments assembled in beneficiary African countries from fabrics wholly formed and cut in the U.S., the volume of duty-free African apparel exports to the U.S. made of fabric sourced from regional (African) or world markets is subject to quantitative limitation. From October 2000 through September 2001, this cap is equal to 1.5 percent of the aggregate square meter equivalents of all apparel articles imported into the U.S. in the previous year. This is to be filled on a “first come, first served” basis from all eligible African countries. Based on total apparel imports in 2000 of over 16,000 million square meters equivalent (SME), the cap for the first year’s period is set at 246.5 million SME. It is scaled upward every year, according to the implementation schedule outlined in Table 2, until 2007/08 when it will be calculated as 3.5 percent of the previous year’s volume of imports. Exporters may track cumulative fill rates at the Department of Commerce’s website, which is updated monthly.4

Table 2: AGOA Apparel Imports Cap Period Cap Definition October 1, 2000 – September 30, 2001 1.50% October 1, 2001 – September 30, 2002 1.78% October 1, 2002 – September 30, 2003 2.06% October 1, 2003 – September 30, 2004 2.34% October 1, 2004 – September 30, 2005 2.62% October 1, 2005 – September 30, 2006 2.90% October 1, 2006 – September 30, 2007 3.18% October 1, 2007 – September 30, 2008 3.50% Source: USTR (2001), pp. 54-55

While the cap may at first glance seem quite low, Africa’s apparel exports to the U.S. were an extremely small portion of total apparel imports in 2000 (only 164 million SME, or just 1 percent of total apparel imports, see Table 3). Thus the cap actually offers substantial growth potential from current levels.

Table 3: U.S. Apparel Imports, 2000 Partner Million SME % of Total World 16,035 100.0 Caribbean Basin Initiative 3,651 22.8 China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan 3,103 19.4 NAFTA (Mexico, Canada) 2,827 17.6 ASEAN 2,280 14.2 Bangladesh, India, Pakistan 1,696 10.6 EU-15 183 1.1 Sub-Saharan Africa 164 1.0 Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Textiles and Apparel

3 “African clothes not duty-free in U.S.,” Business Day. Also, House Committee On Ways And Means press release, March 6, 2001, http://waysandmeans.house.gov/press/press3-6-01.htm. 4 http://otexa.ita.doc.gov/agoa-cbtpa/agoa-cbtpa.htm 4

As of September 2001, 35 African countries have been declared eligible for AGOA benefits. Of these, nine countries – Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, South Africa, and Swaziland – have had their certificate of origin visa systems approved. Several additional countries are still awaiting such approval.

In 2000, exports of African apparel to the U.S. rose by 28 percent (51 percent for knitwear, 16 percent for wovens). While the act was not implemented until October 2000, firms had clearly already begun their marketing processes in anticipation of AGOA’s passage. The export response was particularly strong from Lesotho, South Africa, and Madagascar. Over 90 percent of African apparel exports to the U.S. in the twelve-month period through February 2001 came from just six countries: Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, South Africa, and Swaziland. Of these volumes, close to 90 percent consisted of just five categories of cotton apparel: men’s/boys’ knit shirts, women’s/ girls’ knit blouses, men’s/boys’ woven shirts, men’s/boys’ trousers, and women’s/girls’ slacks.

Table 4: AGOA Apparel Exports to U.S. Status of exports, December 2000 – June 2001 (Million SME) Of which, under AGOA: Total imported apparel Imported apparel Imported apparel assembled from assembled from regional fabric foreign fabric from lesser developed countries Kenya 9.237 4.225 Lesotho 24.881 1.236 Madagascar 19.137 1.877 Mauritius 24.159 1.201 South Africa 26.000 1.370

Total AGOA 103.414 2.571 7.338 Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Textiles and Apparel http://www.otexa.ita.doc.gov/agoa-cbtpa/cat1.htm

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel, 10 million SME of apparel has been imported from Africa under AGOA since December 2000 through June 2001, representing just 4 percent of the 246.5 million SME cap reported above (Table 4). In addition to its exports under AGOA, African countries have also exported garments under HTS section 9802, which assesses duty only on the value-added processing of apparel made from U.S.-cut fabric made of U.S. yarn.

In anticipation of AGOA’s implementation, regional and international investors began preparing for expansion of Africa’s textile and clothing industries. The first annual report on AGOA implementation presents a long list of investment projects underway across the region (USTR 2001). In Kenya, a Mauritian group will open two production units. Mauritian investments are also flooding into Madagascar (where apparel exports are expected to reach 10 percent of GDP and provide for the employment of 70,000 workers by 2005), and anticipated in Senegal, along with Malaysian investments. Eleven new factories and four expansions have been proposed in 5 Lesotho, for a total foreign direct investment injection of $122 million and the creation of 10,000 new jobs, equivalent to four times the level of official development assistance. European and Taiwanese investments have doubled textile and garment employment in Malawi. Business is booming in Mauritius, to the point that new air travel alliances are being built between Air Mauritius and American air carriers. In South Africa, investments are coming in from Malaysia to the tune of $150 million, and regional trade integration via fabric exports to neighboring countries is also on the rise. In Uganda, Asian and Ugandan investors are refurbishing three textile mills.

A revision of AGOA is presently being contemplated by the U.S. Congress.5 This “next generation” law would expand AGOA’s benefits by eliminating the cap on clothing imports from Africa of African fabric, extend duty-free treatment to jerseys and garments manufactured from “knit-to-shape” panels, and expand the definition of “folkloric” to enable a broader selection of African textiles and apparel to enter duty-free.

INDUSTRY BEST PRACTICES

As a frame of reference for Mali, it helps to understand what internationally competitive firms in the textile and clothing industries and artisanal promotion look like.6 Malian producers and exporters should know how modern manufacturing is organized, important pipeline innovations going on in the U.S. such as lean retailing and short-cycle/mass-customization production strategies, how U.S. consumers buy garments and home furnishings today, what is expected of foreign suppliers into the U.S. market, and the experiences of alternative trade organizations which seek to promote market linkages between Third World producers and U.S. consumers.

Industrial Garment Manufacture Organizing large-scale industrial manufacture of garments takes careful planning and management of the process of converting fabric into clothing. Clothing companies normally pay attention to throughput volumes (the amount of work that can be completed in a specific amount of time), throughput time (the amount of time it takes for a single unit of a style to go from cutting to shipping), and the amount of work in process (the number of garments under production at any given time). Attention must also be paid to flow-through and constraints along the production line, where a myriad of operations are required to convert flat goods into apparel. Production managers normally think in terms of how many “standard allowed minutes” it takes for a normal operator to complete one operation using a specified method. These productivity standards allow for more careful planning of production operations, as well as benchmarking operators to make future efficiency improvements. Operations must be scheduled and balanced along the work line in order to avoid bottlenecks.

Production systems commonly used to mass produce apparel in industries around the world include the progressive bundle (as bundles of garment parts are moved sequentially from operation to operation), unit production (automated overhead transportation of garment components from station to station for assembly), and the modular production system (wherein

5 Simon Barber, “US eyes end to cap on African clothing,” Business Day, September 6, 2001. 6 This section draws from Abernethy et al. (1999) and Glock and Kunz (2000). 6 modules or teams of equipment and operators operate as mini-factories). Most of these notions are quite foreign in Malian clothing firms. As enlarging production capacity and improving efficiency of complex production operations become progressively more important in Mali’s industries, workforce training in these areas will become critical.

Lean Retailing Modern garment suppliers’ operations are tightly linked to the retail sector. Because of the high degree of concentration in the retail sector in the U.S. and other modern economies, stores exert great power vis-à-vis producers. The latter must be able to label, track, and respond to product orders in real time according to style, color, fabric, and size. This is done on the basis of electronic information exchange between retailer and producer. Even if the producer is located off-shore, the firm must organize its output accordingly. Bar codes on sales tags attached at the production firm contain “SKU codes” (stock-keeping units) which are in turn read by computers at the point of sale. These computers track in-store inventories and automatically launch replenishment orders by SKUs to producers. For competitive international suppliers, adoption of these practices is a minimum entry requirement for doing business in the U.S. Because “lean” retailers seek to minimize their in-house inventories, garment manufacturers are expected to pick up the slack and hold greater quantities themselves in order to be able to replenish “just-in-time.” Turnaround requirements are tight, sometimes within a week. This gives off-shore producers in Mexico and the Caribbean a great locational advantage over Asian and other suppliers Obviously, a Malian firm cannot hope to manage that end of the supply chain itself, but it must be prepared to work with wholesalers and private label suppliers who do operate in that environment.

In modern operations, garment design and pattern-making is computerized. A particular style is worked up using specialized software, which automatically converts into patterns and marker layouts for cutting. Design specifications can thus be transmitted by email to producers anywhere in the world – if they are equipped to receive and process such information. Computer-driven cutting systems and die-cutting presses are also common in the most advanced garment manufacturers. Clothing assembly operations, however, still require human skill to be undertaken properly and thus tend to be less computerized. The size of a garment firm may vary from several hundreds or thousands of workers in operations which manufacture casual garments to smaller enterprises where fashion sewing is concerned.

Mali has one industrially organized garment firm, the Palais du Vêtement, which at full capacity probably employs no more than thirty operators per shift. All other garment makers in Mali are small-scale tailoring operations, in the 1-20 person class size.7 Order sizes for garments into the U.S. market typically run in the many tens of thousands of units, making it almost impossible for a Malian operation to contemplate entering the standardized clothing end of the market, given its current level of organization and production. Even meeting small orders of one hundred items per SKU will take organization across individual entrepreneurs. This is known in the trade as

7 This is true in the informal sectors of most African countries. In Uganda, for example, informal tailoring businesses of 20-50 persons are commonly found in communally rented warehouse space, even in downtown Kampala. These warehouses group individually employed tailors, who operate their privately-owned manual treadle sewing machines as individual profit centers. It is not known whether the men and women possessing these sewing skills could be re-organized industrially to allow for large-scale cutting and collective manufacture of garments in volume for export. 7 “jobbing.” Jobbers are private individuals or firms acting as market intermediaries, assisting with cash-flow financing, collecting orders, subcontracting them out among smaller scale operations around the city, and then handling export freight logistics.

Such packagers would also offer an attractive clearinghouse for foreigners seeking to enter the Malian business scene. This model has been used quite successfully in Hong Kong, for example, to source garments from throughout East and Southeast Asia. It is likely that someone with international connections could step into the Malian market to do the same. In Mali, there are at least a handful of entrepreneurs who already perform these duties for the manufacture of bogolan cloth pieces for the export tourist trade, and even (to a much more limited extent) for the manufacture of more sophisticated products. Tailors and weavers are also organized into professional associations in Mali, making those organizations possible conduits to subcontracting across their membership.

Mass Customization Another element in the continuous innovation of industry best practices is with respect to mass customization of industrial production. Technological applications are being explored in the U.S. and elsewhere which will allow consumers to custom order garments by fit or design characteristics unique to them. Body image scanning and computerized garment design stations are just two of the techniques being researched that would allow custom-made products to be developed efficiently under mass production settings but with unique characteristics and delivered to the consumer’s door. Malian producers seeking to enter this business need to know that computerization and modern telecommunications technologies are important tools for the sewing businesses of the future.

Understanding the U.S. Market Understanding the pipeline structure and behavior of the U.S. clothing market is important for Malian firms to figure out where their niche might be. There are many ways to stratify that market, according to destination consumers, season, or degree of complexity of the garments. Men’s/boys garments are somewhat distinct from women’s/girls, although that is less true for basic/commodity clothing like trousers, jeans, knit shirts, woven shirts/blouses. Casual clothing is far easier to outsource, because it is less subject to seasonality, than are higher fashion items. Clothing seasons used to be much more easily demarcated in American stores, but garments hang for a much shorter period of time in the shops nowadays.

It would be useful for Malian entrepreneurs to understand what American consumers buy and how they buy it. For starters, many Americans no longer shop in stores. Instead, they browse infinite numbers of mail-order catalogues, sent through the mail to their homes, which are filled with glossy photographs of garments, accessories, and home furnishings in a variety of colors and styles. Consumers simply call the distributor using a toll-free number and their credit card to place an order. The goods are usually received at the consumer’s home, delivered by the post office or private shippers in three business days. As a result, these national level mail-order companies are doing enormous volumes of business, to the detriment of retail shops’ market shares.

American consumers used to buy largely brand label goods. Design and manufacture of these goods were controlled through branded name companies, and then distributed to retail outlets. Cost is less of a deciding factor to the brand label consumer, who is seduced by the brand image 8 into paying a higher price for his/her article. Today, many retail companies seek to cut out the middle-man and design their own lines of clothing or furnishings which they subcontract for manufacture via private label firms. Cost is definitely a deciding factor for private label consumers, many of whom are attracted specifically to the lower prices. As a consequence, private label manufacture tends more frequently to be sourced from low-cost suppliers overseas than from domestic companies.

The tools available to Malians for researching U.S. consumer tastes include the Internet, magazines, and mail-order catalogues. Many U.S. clothing companies and retail outlets have commercial websites which can be browsed for ideas on what is being sold, although the quality of the small electronic images does not allow for a lot of detail penetration. If names of such websites are unknown, one can start by going to “shopping” websites, such as the one at Yahoo. Via several clicks of the mouse, an interested market researcher can explore apparel or interior decor sites, broken out by categories. Fashion and home furnishings magazines are another way to get great glossy photographs of what consumers are buying today, what colors are big, what “look” is in. These may be available for browsing through embassy cultural center libraries. Finally, mail-order catalogues are received by diplomatic personnel, and could be available informally to Malians.

Similarly, for getting a better understanding of how the U.S. industry operates, there are a number of extremely useful websites. Bobbin Magazine (www.bobbin.com) and the Apparel Industry Magazine (www.aimagazine.com) have articles on their websites that detail industry innovations, focusing largely on the U.S. market. Another somewhat more international site is www.just-style.com. Trade magazines for the home furnishings industry include Home Furnishings News (www.hfnmag.com) and Home Textiles Today (www.hometextilestoday.com). Industry associations in the U.S. also have websites with information, including the U.S. Association of Importers of Textile and Apparel (www.usaita.com), the American Textile Manufacturers’ Institute (www.atmi.org), and the American Apparel and Footwear Manufacturers’ Association (www.americanapparel.org). Www.world-textile.net is a good website for the international dyeing industry.

For official statistics and information on AGOA, the government website is www.agoa.gov. Textile and apparel trade and industry information is available from the Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel (www.otexa.ita.doc.gov).

U.S. Interest in Foreign Supply: How to Get Orders Why are Americans increasingly turning to foreign sources of supply for their apparel needs? Quite simply, either because a foreign supplier can offer better value for the money, can provide a product that does not yet exist in the U.S. market, or can supply a product with better attributes.

Few Malian members of the textile and clothing industries have any understanding of the workings of the international market and how to sell products under such demanding conditions. For the micro, small, and medium enterprises which have only ever produced for the local market, the prospect of identifying potential buyers in the U.S. is extremely daunting. Although professional associations of weavers, tailors, and artisans do exist in Mali, few have any linkages to export markets abroad.

9 For a potential new supplier to the U.S. market such as Mali, it is a good idea to actually go and look at what is being bought, made, and imported. Organizing such a prospecting trip would require considerable assistance from knowledgeable agents on the U.S. side, and should include visits with a diversity of stakeholders in the market, including retailers, brand label manufacturers, private label manufacturers, brokers/representative agents, and U.S. Customs officials and clearing agents. It may also be useful to schedule such a trip around one of the many trade fairs, not as participants, but merely as observers. During such a trip, it will be important to buy merchandise in order to bring back samples for test making up and costing.

While in the U.S., it would also be desirable to identify the services of an agent or market representative who can work on Malian firms’ behalf to find contracts. The ideal broker should be someone with good connections in the industry and strong market knowledge. S/he should be trustworthy and “hungry” for business, and committed to the complexities of working in a challenging African environment.

Difficulties to Overcome Upon Receipt of Orders Once a firm has landed a contract, it must be understood that there are no second chances in this business. One firm’s bad experience can sour the U.S. reputation for all Malian manufacturers as the network of U.S. importers of African textiles and crafts is small. Orders should not be accepted if they are not realistically achievable. Servicing them requires careful planning to be sure that raw material suppliers are known or pre-identified, logistics channels into Mali for raw materials are understood, manufacturing capacity is ready, and the order can be turned around in the requisite amount of time.

Before accepting an export contract, the firm needs to understand what standards are required and what defect rates will be tolerated by the customer. A supplier needs to ensure that it can meet the standards not only with sampling, but with the bulk order. The cost of failure is high. Claims departments in U.S. import companies survive by filing against non-performing or defective suppliers, and the financial risk of a sour deal is high. It is recommended that no order for high fashion clothing be accepted (it is likely that none will be offered). Given Mali’s distance from the consumer market, supplying fashion items to the U.S. would be extremely risky. This part of the sector is prone to last-minute design and color changes, which cannot be easily monitored from Mali. Because the market for these garments is extremely seasonal, unsol stock will have no market value next season. Thus, it is recommended that Malian textile groups focus on high-end home furnishings products which are less seasonal and quality-intensive (compared with fashion garments) and less cost-sensitive (compared with commodity garments).

Constant communication with the client, whether a broker or an end-user, is critical. Malian manufacturers should be prepared to monitor emails and faxes constantly, responding within two hours of their receipt. Foreign customers will need assurances that you are on top of their orders, and will want to know when an order expects to ship. Because of the time zone difference, it is advisable to have someone in the firm who works “New York hours” – at the plant or from home, as necessary – in order to be by the phone or computer during the customer’s work day.

Alternative Trade Organizations Breaking into international markets for textile and leather based goods presents formidable challenges. This is true not only in terms of developing market connections. Exporting also requires developing production capacity of sufficient scale, developing an international network 10 for the sourcing of raw materials, and developing a system for gauging and improving quality and efficiency standards.

One possible alternative to trying to break into U.S. markets alone is with the assistance of non- profit organizations known as Alternative Trade Organizations (ATOs). Such groups typically focus less on developing commercial garment trade, and more on trade in a diverse range of cultural products which may include garments but is not necessarily focused on them. Thus this business model is of potential interest to Mali’s textile and leather artisans because of the better product match and the access ATOs can bring to knowledge about product design and manufacture, marketing, and trade logistics.

ATOs deliver product design, quality control, management, and trade logistics services to Third World producers.8 Their mission is to promote sales of crafts or “cultural products”. Though these may be manufactured using a range of technologies from hand- to machine-based, they are distinguished by almost always being derived from the cultural traditions of the local producers. ATOs are also usually characterized by the pursuit of a business strategy which seeks to maximize returns to producers and minimize margins to marketing agents, rather than vice-versa. The organizations tend to be less profit-oriented than conventional businesses, often relying outright on volunteerism or the satisfaction of altruistic motives to serve as partial compensation for its staff. They also often count on outside financial support (grants, development project assistance) to cover some portion of their operating costs. Most critically, because they value the market linkage they provide to poor women and men crafts producers, they will consider entering into market arrangements in countries where the risks of doing business usually preclude more conservative, profit-oriented firms from operating.

These groups include Aid to Artisans (ATA), Marketplace: Handwork of India, PEOPLink, SERRV, Ten Thousand Villages, and Traditions Fair Trade.9 ATA has a fairly pragmatic approach to its role in the market, seeking to connect artisanal products with buyers from mainstream retail organizations as well as U.S. wholesalers/distributors who specialize in ethnocentric products. It helped to develop ATAG (ATA/Ghana), which has existed since 1986 with support from USAID, the Pew Charitable Trust, Polaroid Corporation, and Technoserve. Building on Ghana’s rich craft traditions in textiles, wood carving, lost-wax metal casting, beads and ceramics, ATAG has built a craft marketing and visitor center as its headquarters in Accra, has developed training for exporters, and now serves as a clearing house, showroom and retail outlet for artisans and potential buyers from all over the world.

New Market Outlets In addition to retailer outlets and mail-order catalogues, many organizations are now experimenting with direct retail over Internet websites. Some are ATOs, such as several of the ones listed above, whose websites are listed in the annex. Some are commercial companies that market artisanal products through the Web and print catalogues, such as eZiba (www.eziba.com) and OneNest (www.onenest.com). Retail shops attached to art and nature museums are another new market for specialty textiles and leather based goods from around the world, as well as goods handcrafted in many other media. Some of the best known include the Smithsonian

8 For case studies of a number of ATOs, see Littrell and Dickson (1999). 9 Market references are listed in the annex to this report. 11 Institute in Washington, D.C. (www.smithsonianstore.com)10 and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (www.mfa.org/shop). An emerging museum shop on the crafts scene is Exploris (www.exploris.org), located in Raleigh, North Carolina. They source their wares either through the sites and ATOs already mentioned, or with their own designers and buyers who work directly with artisans abroad. Or they can be individually or collectively run websites, organized by private traders or artisanal organizations.

Some website efforts produced by development projects in Mali have a dismal on-line presence (www.undp.org/fomli/art.htm), others have been much more professionally done (www.actionforenterprise.org/mali). Not much is known about the success of the electronic ventures, as most are relatively new and may be under threat from the 2001 economic downturn. They all bear watching by Malian producer/exporters, as well as the official organizations, such as the Malian National Center for the Promotion of Artisanry and the National Federation of Malian Artisans (www.promali.org/ bogolan).

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCES IN THE MALIAN TEXTILE AND CLOTHING SECTOR

In light of the U.S. market access opportunities available to African exporters under AGOA, development of exportable textile- and leather-based products has been a high priority of the Malian Ministry of Industry and Trade.

“Competitiveness” is a term frequently heard among hard-working, private sector oriented policy makers in Africa today, and Mali is no exception. Given current international best practices, can Mali compete in international markets? In textile milling, there is no cotton cloth being manufactured in Mali today which meets the standards of the U.S. market. With respect to garments and home furnishings products, on the other hand, it is certainly possible that with the right combination, products could be manufactured in Mali that would meet U.S. customers’ specifications.

Competitiveness in the textile and clothing industries, as in most other sectors, is a function of cost, qualitative, and technical factors. Understanding these variables and deciding how to strategically improve them are the great entrepreneurial challenges for stakeholders in this industry in Mali.11

A 1999 analysis suggested that Mali’s comparative advantage may lie in the development of culturally based textile and leather products, rather than the export of cotton-based commodities such as yarn and fabric (Salinger et al. 1999). This is likely for several reasons. Mali is land- locked and its land-based transportation infrastructure is inefficient, resulting in high costs of transportation and uncertain delivery to international clients via coastal seaports. Mali’s labor is also not as cheap as it is in competing garment producer nations around the world. Thus, the

10 However, the National Museum of African Art (www.nmafa.si.edu) of the Smithsonian does not have an on-line museum store. 11 For a detailed assessment of Mali’s prospects for textile and clothing exports, see Salinger (1999, 2001b). For analyses of textile and clothing industries elsewhere (South Africa, Uganda, Vietnam), see Salinger (1998, 2000, 2001a, 2001c). 12 export of standardized, “commodity” clothing such as T-shirts and men’s slacks is not likely to be effectively undertaken in a higher cost country such as Mali. Rather, Mali must develop a niche exports strategy which allows for the export of higher valued goods that can be competitively air freighted to foreign customers. The development of such a strategy has been the objective of one of seven activities supported by USAID/Mali’s Support for Economic Growth office.

In pursuit of this, product concepts and marketing strategies were discussed with Aid to Artisans (ATA, www.aidtoartisans.org) at the N.Y. International Gift Fair in January 2001 and with ATA marketing staff in Hartford, Connecticut in April 2001. Implementation of a product development and market strategy was begun in earnest in December 2000 and continued in May- June 2001, when textile and leather industry specialist Carpenter spent three weeks in Mali.

Action for Enterprise’s “Soutien aux Exportations des Produits Artisanaux (SEPA)” project helped to connect us with key exporters.12 Since its inception in Mali in February 2000, SEPA has focused on the development of artisanal product exports from micro-enterprises. SEPA works with key artisans in bogolan, metal, recycled cans, wood, and basketry, and has developed a broad collection of mostly household furnishing products such as serving trays, furniture, and household accessories. Its market strategy targets U.S. importers of Afro-centric products who wholesale gift items to U.S. retail outlets. The SEPA office/ showroom/ workshop has become a place for artisans to come and see other artisans’ work, present their work and review and discuss things like ideas, trends, color, techniques, catalogues, timing, quality and finishing. It has also become an important venue for showcasing finished work for exporters and visitors.

Carpenter worked with five key artisan groups identified during her May-June 2001 trip to Mali to develop five product lines. These combine textile and leather products and are grouped in several color-based collections. Products have been developed utilizing bazin (cotton fabrics with woven-in jacquard designs, imported into Mali from Europe or Asia) in three collections and bogolan (hand-spun, hand-woven, and hand-dyed “mud cloth” cotton fabrics, locally produced in Mali) in two other collections. All of the groups are augmented with hand-tanned, hand-tooled, and dyed-to-match leather products. Samples have been cost-priced at the ex-maker level. Details of these efforts are presented below.

Hand-Processed Cotton Jacquard Fabrics Hand-tied and hand-dyed bazin fabrics are processed throughout Mali. This project worked with two creative textile dye artists based in Bamako, Madame Awa Cissé and the Tantou Teinture enterprise.

Awa Cissé’s workshop is in a small fishing village on the banks of the Niger river in Bamako. She employs a staff of about ten to fifteen women and several men, for tying, dyeing, starching with manioc-based washes, drying, and beating fabric.13 She has the ability to hire in additional laborers when needed, but she is a small-scale dyeing operation.

12 Elaine Belleza, SEPA’s director, contributed enormously to the development of the artisanal sector during her eighteen months in Mali. Bellezza left Mali in August 2001, and the project is now under the direction of former assistant director Bruno Badamie. 13 The latter three stages are referred to as “calendaring” in the textile industry. 13 The base white bazin used by Carpenter in samples development was selected from Cissé’s available stock. This is a first-quality, German-origin cotton jacquard, available through the fabric wholesaler/importer Gagny Lah in Bamako. Four different indigo-blue tie-dye patterns were ordered from Madame Cissé.

Midway through the ordering and production process with Mme. Cissé, several technical issues were encountered. First, colors in subsequent dye lots did not exactly match the original piece she was given to follow. They were much more blue in cast, compared with the original blue- green indigo hue. Secondly, an incorrect all-over pattern was made. Whereas an all-over stripe was ordered, an all-over diamond pattern was produced. Since the stripe is an important design motif, another sample had to be ordered.

Another issue arose with respect to a seam that was found in the initial solid color sample when it was brought to a cut-make-trim firm for manufacture into finished products (see Table-top Accessories below). This occurred because the sample was originally ordered in specific patterning, of which insufficient quantities of the base fabric were available in one piece. Thus the stripe pattern and the remade solid piece had to be in another base jacquard pattern. Since nothing similar was available, Madame Cissé was asked to find a similar base jacquard that would work with the original pattern.

Inspection of the balance of the outstanding indigo group of fabrics from Awa Cissé proved to be a good case study in re-dyeing in order to judge how large a shade band can be expected in the dyeing and color matching process. The last three fabrics are a much darker Indigo blue and the stripe pattern is much more narrow than on the original all-over pattern. This wide a range of color shading will have to be expected when attempting to repeat dye the same color. Customers will have to be made aware of, and comfortable with, this amount of variance. This second order also tested what type of patterns relate to each other in Madame Cissé’s eye in the base bazin jacquards. Such gauges of judgement are critical as long-distance working and communication relationships become increasingly imperative as the sector becomes more involved in exporting.

These observations notwithstanding, Awa Cissé is an important contact. There are some reservations regarding her ability to consistently match colors from dye bath to dye bath. She will require training, careful supervision, and monitoring to help her improve her color matches.

Tantou Teinture is the second and the larger of the bazin fabric dyers trained under this project (www.malinet.ml/pratique/tantou/). Tantou employs about 30 girls who dye and work for her at any given time, another 10 men and women who tie patterns, and perhaps another 10 men who calendar the finished dyed materials. She also has the ability to hire in additional labor upon demand.

Her base fabrics include both first- and second-quality, 100% bazin, also sourced from Gagny Lah. Tantou Teinture displays her pricing structure, timing, and color charts in large color swatches using sample books. A first-quality, 51”-wide fabric was selected as the base bazin jacquard for one of the groups. Purchased in one 30-meter piece, it was broken into the pieces and colors needed for dyeing solids and prints in two color groups.

The “Desert Sands” collection is dyed in “hot” colors and consists of two patterns. The first is a machine-stitched, tie-dyed, gingham-like check that was produced in two color ways. The other 14 collection, “Shifting Sands Stripe,” is tie-dyed and incorporates both of the hot base colors in one color way. The two main base colors are a hot “Bissap Pink” and “Mango Orange”. The base 100% cotton bazin jacquard for this group is a first-quality tropical leaf pattern. A thirty-meter bolt of this fabric was purchased from wholesaler Gagny Lah, only to discover when it was cut up for dyeing that seven meters were destroyed by the ‘gift’ ink pen that the distributor includes inside the fabric bolts. This was observed on more than one occasion. This could be a potential problem if the patterns are in limited supply and some of the fabric is ruined due to this ink stain issue. The concept of the hot color group is to mix and match and color block the various solids together and with the patterns. Eight colors/patterns were ordered from Tantou Teinture.

The patterning for the base fabric of the “cool” group of colors, “Desert Winds,” was harder to identify. It was determined that the base cloth for this group would be more of a geometric pattern than the first group. Two patterns were designed that could be coordinated on the base cloth. This tests to see how varied one can be in the use of the base patterns. “Desert Winds” consists of two hand tie-dyed patterns printed on two different base jacquard fabrics, plus the solids that coordinate back to them. The patterns are an all-over “Dotted Circular” pattern in two colors with a Nile Blue base and an all over “Dotted Squares” pattern with a Nile Blue and Palm- colored dot on a third color, Leaf, base. These fabrics are much more expensive than the fabrics in the hot color group because they are all hand tie-dyed versus machine stitched tie-dyed. They also take much longer to prepare.

Tantou Teinture, a relatively sophisticated company in this specialized fabric dyeing industry, is also an important contact. The firm maintains a commercial showroom, has participated in international fairs and exhibitions, and receives some support from development groups to run a training center to keep this traditional craft alive. Tantou travels abroad on her own account to attend trade fairs, keep abreast of trends, and interact with customers. She attended the August 2001 New York International Gift Fair at her own expense and was able to see her products displayed there and speak with potential customers.

Bogolan Product development work with bogolan fabrics has been undertaken with the Kasobané group, which is based in Ségou. Two different patterns have been developed, each in two different color-ways. The first pattern (“Zig-Zag”) is a Kasobané design, printed in the original and more classic brown-black-white and also in indigo-chambray-white. Elements drawn from previous Kasobané work and fabrics found in the studio were combined to design a second pattern (“Soft Geo”), printed in two color ways as well. These colors are a bit newer and softer, and include a cinnamon-citron-white combination and a chambray-olive green-white combination.

Bogolan fabric development was discussed with Kasobané from the perspective of pricing, panel sizes, and weights of fabrics, considering various combinations of industrial versus hand-spun warp and weft threads. The original samples produced by Kasobané did not completely meet their own quality standards, so they were redone at no extra cost. Several repeat orders were required to get the right looks. This unexpected delay limited the amount of time left within the three-week product development mission for the sewing of finished products with the Bogolan. Nevertheless, Kasobané was quite collaborative and open to iterative custom designing. Final product samples looked great. Kasobané is definitely an organization to be worked with in future projects.

15 Twill fabric (55-60” wide) used for backings of the bogolan product samples is manufactured by the Malian textile mill COMATEX and can be purchased from the local market. The twill is available in two weights. The heavier weight was chosen to add stability to the bogolan fabric. Twill is readily available in black, navy, and an olive green. Brown twill was also eventually located as well. Both cut-make-trim operations with whom we worked, the Palais du Vêtement and tailor/designer Amadou Touré, indicate that they can obtain large quantities of any of these weights/colors of twill when needed.

Hand-Worked Leather Products The ability of local Tuareg leather artisans to dye hides to coordinate with pre-determined colors for an entire group of fabrics and accessories is a crucial factor in being ability to integrate leather accents into product design. A test run for leather pillows, leather boxes, and leather- soled slippers with matching bazin tops was ordered with Souraka Diakité, located in Bamako’s Maison des Artisans. Professional, fast, eager to learn and talented, he will be one of the most important leather artisans to work with. He is also learning English, which makes it much easier to work with him.

Another test run for dyed-to-match leather boxes hand-tooled with new and more geometric stampings was ordered through Omar Boubacar, another Tuareg leather artisan. Two box designs were ordered in two different colors. He ended up being a good collaborator as well, and was interested in engaging in repeated dye-to-match tests once the fabric color stories were set. However, constant pricing negotiations may be needed with him.

A third Tuareg leather artisan also presented himself to be hired to make boxes. His samples were decidedly inferior to the boxes made by Omar Boubacar and the workmanship was not nearly as good. The boxes were not lined inside with leather, the colors were uneven and old looking, and the assortment appeared to have been gathered from various people of varying levels of expertise. Nevertheless, there were two styles that had some potential. One box was ordered to test his ability to dye to match and to respond to higher quality criteria. A small down payment was made for one box. However, he never showed up again and the deposit was lost.

Reviewing the samples made by Omar Boubacar, several corrections were made to initial make- ups. Additional boxes were ordered in various sizes with color stories now set. The boxes were all to be in geometric shapes with geometric stamping/patterning. There were to be two sizes per shape and each was ordered in a different, dyed-to-match color. The initial attempts were fairly satisfactory. Training was offered on quality, color, and pricing issues.

Another Tuareg leather artisan, Issa Yatara, also produces very nice boxes with mirrors inside. Some of his designs of circular boxes are cleaner and without geometric patterning in steps and little stamping. Four styles were ordered through him.

The first leather pillow sample received from Souraka Diakité was pretty good for an initial attempt. However, the closure was unsatisfactory and needed revision. Discussions also focused on the quality of the leather and the finishing of the skins. It was stressed that the finishing had to be even in application and the color had to be applied evenly. Two additional leather pillows were ordered that would coordinate back to the Bogolan fabric groups, chosen because the skins will not be as finely tanned as leather from other countries. Thus, the more “rustic” quality of the leather would be matched with the more “rustic” quality of these fabric groups. Since the 16 Bogolan was not yet finished, the exact colors were not available for matching leather dyes, leading to improvisation of the colors for the leather pillow samples. Ultimately, the colors of the skins in the leather pillows are not as close to the colors in the Bogolan group as the leather colors in the boxes and shoes. The actual colors of fabric swatches were in-hand by the time the latter were made.

Table-top Accessories The industrial sewing firm Palais du Vêtement was contracted for manufacture of the first samples made from the Awa Cissé indigo Bazin group. The manager, Mr. Hamed Miaga, helped with the coordination and pricing. He speaks a bit of English, which was helpful. The head tailor, Abdul, was involved in process training from the start. Mr. Waly Bathily, the head of the factory, although not available initially, did participate in product discussions on subsequent visits. Upon laying out the solid Bazin fabric, it was discovered that there was a seam going through the center of the fabric. This was unacceptable to work with and affected the types of products that could be sewn. Together with Palais du Vêtement staff, it was determined what products could begin. After production of samples had begun, a further training session was organized to review sewing techniques, thread count and tension, and a few other technical issues.

The Palais du Vêtement would appear to be an ideal factory base for manufacturing larger quantities of textile products. It has approximately 30 employees who work from 9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. daily, though they leave a bit earlier on Fridays as most of the staff and management are Muslim. Additional shifts of sewing operators can be put on to handle larger quantities in a timely manner. However, some of the machinery is old and in disrepair. The firm has ten-year- old Rimaldi machines, a few merrow machines, two cutting rooms, some electronic cutting equipment, button holer machines, some embroidery machines, and some silk screening facilities. Production is currently focused on making military and school uniforms. The tension of the machinery has been set for sewing uniforms, which are made in the heavier weight twill. The stitching appears heavy handed when applied to the lighter weight Bazin.

Additional tailoring services were contracted with individual entrepreneur and “chef d’atelier” Amadou Touré. He was given an initial group of Bazin samples to sew, and promised a one- week turnaround for the initial order. Subsequent contracting was done through him as well.

It was interesting to see the capabilities of the two tailoring organizations. The Palais is not as sophisticated in its needle work as Amadou Touré. This can likely be attributed to the fact that Touré custom-tailors garments for private clients so needle tension, thread size, and hand sewing are all much finer, with more attention paid to details.

On the other hand, the regular business lines of the Palais are uniforms and more industrial-type clothing. Their detail work needs help. However, they were extremely eager to learn how to make better corners and bindings and piping. Tensions were loosened on their machines. Operators and managers were very apologetic whenever the product was not up to standards, and samples were readily remade. They were very satisfied at our excitement when well-executed samples were turned out, which made the Palais a pleasure to work with.

New Product Designs Upcoming Malian product designer Bruno Badamie and his wife Joanne Douglas have a new atelier in Bamako. He has been the assistant manager of Action for Enterprise’s Export 17 Promotion Support Project almost since its inception, and is taking the reins through September 2002, following the departure from Mali of the original American director, Elaine Bellezza. Badamie/Douglas’ new products include wooden and metal furniture, wooden frames with etched designs, and Bogolan table accessories with graphic patterning that is quite modern, but taken from ancient Bambara symbols. They have their finger on the pulse of something quite special and saleable. The project should stay in touch with them for future undertakings.

THE AUGUST 2001 NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL GIFT FAIR

The textile- and leather-based products developed in Mali by Ms. Carpenter were exhibited in Aid to Artisan’s Gift Fair booth at the August 2001 show. The Gift Fair showcases over 2,800 exhibiting companies with more than 5,000 product lines. Over 45,000 buyers attend the week- long event. It is one of the U.S. market’s pre-eminent trade shows. Handmade crafts, juried designers, and home furnishings products each exhibit in their own sections of the show.

Official foreign exhibitors include the Brazilian Trade Bureau, the Canadian Gift and Tableware Association, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the Ateliers d’Art de France, a German international trade fair group, the Guatemala Trade Office, India’s Jute Manufacturers Development Council, the Trade Commission of Mexico, South Africa’s International Trade Projects, the Thai Trade Center, and from the U.K., the British Crafts Council, the British Design Group, and the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Non-profit groups like Aid to Artisans help to represent the works of artisans from Kyrgystan, Mozambique, Ghana, Peru, and Vietnam in their booths. Aid to Artisans (ATA) maintains a network of socially conscious corporations and individuals in the markets for handcrafts, accessories, decorative arts, home furnishings, textiles and fashion with whom they link their overseas producers. ATA has successfully supplied products from the Gift Fair to wholesalers, retailers, and catalogue companies such as Bamboula, Crate & Barrel, Garnet Hill, Jonathan Adler, Melange, Pottery Barn, Smith & Hawken, Sundance, and Tribalinks, among others.

The new Malian products were well received by Gift Fair attendees. The Tuareg leather boxes sold particularly well (for which orders totaled $1870, FOB Mali), as did some table top groupings and the indigo leisure wear robe (for which orders totaled $800, FOB Mali). This is an unprecedented accomplishment.

The Bazin products were highly appreciated at the Fair. In fact, Homestyle magazine picked up on their baptismal presence on to the New York gift scene, and will be featuring the Malian home furnishings products in their October 2001 magazine. However, many potential buyers commented that the products were considered to be expensive. Strategies for reducing wholesale prices discussed with Carpenter during the show include switching product development to second or third quality bazin from the first quality used initially. Also, it will be important to explore avenues for rebate of Mali’s taxe extérieure commune (TEC) (import duty) on imported finished intermediary goods (Category 3) (22.5 percent) and Mali’s value-added tax (VAT, 18 percent, paid on top of CIF-with-duty). In principle, exported goods are exonerated from payment of both the TEC and the VAT and thus eligible either for ex-ante temporary admission or for ex-poste reimbursement.

18 An example of the cost calculation used to derive a wholesale price for a table runner made from indigo bazin is presented below. It should be noted that these are sample cost estimates. FOB prices could be lowered through more careful costing by a productions specialist of what it would cost to produce larger volumes. The table below indicates what the raw material fabric costs would be (“Economic cost”), assuming that the 22.5 percent TEC and 18 percent VAT were deducted from the full financial price paid for the materials. This overstates the duties somewhat, because the financial cost of the raw material includes the cost of local dyeing services. However, it does suggest that if exporters were truly exonerated from duties and taxes on fabric, the wholesale cost would be something on the order of 20-25 percent less expensive.

Table 5: Financial and Economic Cost Calculations of Sample Table Runner Financial VAT TEC Economic cost cost

Raw material: print fabric face 0.67 meters 9.54 $/meter 6.36 0.97 0.99 4.40 Raw material: solid fabric back 0.67 meters 8.21 $/meter 5.47 0.83 0.85 3.79 Assembly services 3.00 3.00 Trim (interlining, thread) 0.70 0.70 Total, wholesale 15.53 1.81 1.84 11.89

Not all the products developed by Carpenter were shown in New York. The bogolan lines and several of the leather products did not make it into this show. This was due in part to limited exhibition space. It also was deemed preferable to focus in the first show with one coordinated look, i.e. the bright bazin-based products, rather than dilute by showing too many kinds of things at once. This means that there are still fresh products to be shown in the next fair (January 2002), if so desired.

As shown on the inside cover of this report (which was the ATA’s sales book cover for the Mali line at the August fair), the products are sophisticated and show quite well. However, in light of the restrained buyer reaction to the textiles products, it is possible that the Aid to Artisans booth did not allow for maximum exposure of these highly designed, top-quality table linens. Access to exhibiting in the “Handmade” section of the fair is quite a coup for new Malian producers. However, it may be helpful to strategize about how to gain access to the “Accent on Design” section of the fair, which strives to highlight goods with original, creative and authentic product design, new and innovative use of materials, and a focus on contemporary design. Goods exhibited here tend to be those with higher price points, aiming for a more upscale retail audience, which Carpenter had in mind when building the Mali collection.

Most excitingly, a fair amount of excitement was created by showing new, modern products out of Mali. Several wholesalers at the Gift Fair expressed interest in co-financing one or two return trips by Carpenter to Mali in order to oversee order fulfillment and shipping for this first set of critical orders. This strong indication of private sector support for modern Malian textile and leather goods, after their baptismal appearance at the Gift Fair, is heartening and augers well for

19 Malian producers, if commercial linkages between U.S. wholesalers and Malian producers/ exporters can be nurtured during an initial period.14

ISSUES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Given this project’s experiences, key issues are reviewed below and recommendations are outlined.

Raw Materials Availability Is the local supply of quality raw material (cotton fiber, thread, hides) sufficient? Can new thread or fabric colors or weights be developed on a custom basis and supplied by Mali’s industrial textile mills? Is there any problem in importing raw damask and chemical dyes of various qualities?

The team found local supplies of basic grade raw materials to be adequate. There is no obvious constraint on imported cotton jacquard fabric from either Germany or the Far East. There may be some cause for concern in that wholesale importing appears to be heavily concentrated in the hands of one Bamako-based entrepreneur, Gagny Lah. However, this allows local processors of that fabric to concentrate on their processing activities, and not have to worry about international transactions. In the future, if a firm like Tantou Teinture gets sufficiently large, it may be interested in managing its own input supply stream.

As for other inputs consumed in more limited quantities, handspun cotton thread is readily available, as is industrially spun thread from COMATEX. However, color selection and fabric weight from COMATEX is quite limited, for thread or fabric, and the minima required for custom orders is high. Chemical dyes are imported and readily available. The availability of small ruminant hides is not a problem; most cattle hides are said to be exported and thus unavailable to local processors. Interesting opportunities exist for developing custom closure and finishing materials, such as leather buttons or tooled ebony buttons or stays.

Import Duties on Raw Materials Destined for Export As noted above, Malians working with imported bazin have to pay both the common external tariff (TEC), determined by the West African Economic and Monetary Union, and local VAT taxes on imported raw materials. If Mali is to expand its export processing activities, efficient mechanisms for exempting export-oriented producers from – or reimbursing them ex-poste for – these duties and taxes will have to be found. If not, Malian producers will definitely be penalized in terms of a lack of cost-competitiveness, relative to producers from other countries.

Production Capacity Are the artisans currently prepared to make the quantities that would be required of them should they be included and showcased in a venue as large as the New York Gift Fair?

14 NOTE: Due to the bombings in the U.S. on September 11, this private sector-financed trip to oversee order fulfillment was postponed until November. Unfortunately, this “force majeure” event may compromise the timely delivery of Malian textile and leather goods to the U.S. market in time for the Christmas season. 20 There are just a few examples of larger scale production, or the capacity to mobilize larger volumes, in Mali. Bogolan production is being organized by one wholesaler/exporter to the tune of 20,000 meters of raw cotton strips per week and exports of one ton per month. The weavers’ association includes over 700 members, capable of weaving a potential 9-12,000 meters of simple weave strips per day. The tailors’ unions include large memberships, although we did not identify any examples of large-scale production organization across micro-firms to date. The dyeing collaboratives we interviewed are capable of dyeing 50-100 six-meter pieces per day (if solid colors; fewer, if more complicated color schemes). Bamako’s one clothing company, Palais du Vêtement, is said to be capable of producing the equivalent of 300-350 shirts per day, or 9- 10,000 shirts in a month, though these levels have never been tested. Diawousse Creations reportedly ships several thousand garments to the U.S. (traditional Afro-centric garments as well as more western style shirts and dresses) each spring/summer season.

However, the artisans in general, and the smaller artisanal groups in particular, are not financially ready to support the start-up costs (such as purchasing materials, dyes, trims, etc.) for larger quantities, nor are they set up for producing any significant quantities of consistently high quality products without supervision and constant input at this time. They might do better to start with a few carefully selected retailers that understand the process and are willing to work with them to start with smaller, more manageable quantities and have the chance to go through the entire process a few times before they attempt to participate in a large venue. Out of sensitivity to these capacity constraints, it was agreed by Aid to Artisans and AIRD to show the Mali samples, but only pursue a very limited number of orders at the Gift Fair in August 2001.

With respect to financing issues, the SEPA project has found that many exporter/producers expect or require a 50% advance from international buyers in order to finance up-front the purchase of raw materials and organize production. This practice runs counter to global market operations elsewhere. Whether in China, India, or Guatemala, U.S. product designers contracting for off-shore manufacture do not pay an advance of this magnitude in order to secure product. That financing role is generally covered by the local agents/exporters who organize the local ateliers to produce for the contract, for which s/he receives a fee, of course. Malians who are unable to adapt to that system will likely not participate to a large extent in this more competitive, commercial environment. When confronted with this broader international reality, one of the handful of larger scale Malian exporters said he would be willing to try an alternative pricing scheme in order to accommodate orders without advance payments.

21 Quality Consistency Are the artisans prepared to make the consistent quality that would be required of the customers from a venue like the New York International Gift Fair?

Many of the smaller artisans do not have large staffs and would have to recruit friends, family, and other artisans to help with large orders. Also, they are not set up to produce any significant quantities of consistently high quality products without supervision and constant input at this time. It would be difficult to monitor the quality from all these facets. The re-dyeing experience with Awa Cissé also showed us that the color consistency is not guaranteed even from one week to the next in the Bazin fabrics. The combinations in Bogolan which use Indigo are less stable than the color combinations utilizing the traditional leaf and bark and mud colors. These will prove more difficult to control especially in larger quantities. It is due to the nature of the dye stuff on the fabric.

In order to address these issues, a quality control arm would need to be established either within each producer group/firm or by a central reviewing agent whose job would be to monitor the quality of production before export. A short training courses could be set up to sensitize producers to international quality/consistency expectations. A discussion of specifications, shade bands, and tolerances would have to be included. The training course would assist producers and export agents in developing feasible technical and marketing solutions.

Reliability of Local Suppliers The Tuareg leather items are beautiful and unique, yet their suppliers are the least reliable group and most difficult to contact as many of them do not have phones. They are also the least likely to hold pricing once it is negotiated, as they appear to be more interested in making the immediate money rather than looking long-term at what potential orders could be. Should one try to develop a commercial relationship with them?

It is recommended that foreign customers continue to work with them cautiously and get small and manageable orders for them to handle. Over time, if they are shown the benefit to making consistent products and maintaining their pricing structure and the down-side of continually and randomly raising their prices, they should become more market-sensitive. They require training with respect to the design and pricing of leather items in other countries, in order to give them international market context for understanding what happens to the product in terms of pricing once it leaves their workshops.

Industrial Technology and Capital Constraints The installed machinery base at the Palais du Vêtement is quite old and out-of-date. Electricity supply is intermittent and often either goes off completely or the firm suffers through “brown- outs”. There are no folder machines for making clean and easy bindings, ties, and pippins similar to what was used on some of the samples. These all had to be made by hand, which is very difficult to do and makes quality control extremely difficult, especially as volumes increase. What can be done to ease some of these industrial capacity constraints?

These and other issues were reviewed with factory directory Hamed Miaga and owner/director Waly Bathily (who built this factory). Management is willing to purchase the folder machine if they know that important volumes of orders are forthcoming. Sewing operators were trained to

22 lengthen the stitches per inch and loosen the tension on the machines to make the sewing cleaner and to pay attention to certain details such as mitered corners. Cutters were trained to utilize fabrics to make sure that motifs appeared straight on the finished products even if they were not straight in the dyeing. Continuation of these types of hands-on training and exchanges are imperative in order to change the perspective of the workers and to expose them to new ways of working and concentrating on quality.

Pricing How can local artisans be helped to understand pricing structures for export to the U.S. or Europe? Malian producers price their products based on what the price at which they are able to retail individual pieces in the local tourist market. They have difficulty grasping the fact that there will be a mark-up of at least five times on their first costs. They are also unaware of the global marketplace and average price points for certain products, irrespective of how difficult it might be for them to locate certain materials.

There is a need for workshops and training sessions to acquaint producers with the costing and pricing of products. The manual that was prepared by Aid to Artisans is a great tool for this training. There is also a need for the same training to brief potential export agents on the costing of their services. Margins are commonly paid for intermediation and jobbing services. However, world market-savvy importers in the U.S. know what they usually pay elsewhere, and will have reference margins in mind when they settle prices with Malian agents.

Building Export Logistics Capacity Are the mechanisms in place to export the types of quantities that could come from exhibiting at a venue the size of the New York International Gift Fair? The exporters that exist are not equipped to handle many of these types of products from the stand point of reviewing the products and recognizing quality deficiencies, to seeing color differences in the same way that we do, to seeing the deficiencies in sewing and finishing, etc. How can this process get started?

There is a pressing need for “export agents” in Mali. We are talking about a range of services beyond simple freight facilitation, which is all that exists in Mali right now (air- and sea freight agents). In more developed export economies around the world, it is normal to have export agents who act as intermediaries in the market for dealing with foreign buyers, offering pre- shipment financing, assigning production to a range of reliable producers/suppliers, overseeing consistency of quality standards, assuring adherence to time schedules, packaging and arranging for shipping, handling of financial transactions with the foreign buyer, and paying local producers.

There are a number of exporters in Mali today who manage large volumes of exports in traditional product lines. A handful of individuals in Bamako already export artisanal/tourist products to foreign markets. They usually work with goods that do not have the same degree of manufacturing or quality expectation as the more up-scale products which we have developed.

However, current exporters are not equipped to handle the color and mixed media (i.e. leather with fabrics) products that we are suggesting. The ideal candidate would be a Malian who has had some exposure to western products and requirements in manufacturing and quality. This is a key position that could help in alleviating other issues cited above. At present, there is no one in Mali who fits the bill perfectly. Several individuals have qualifications that would make them 23 interesting choices, but there is no evidence that anyone is interested in doing this as a full-time position, which would be necessary in the long term. Some investigation should be started to locate the person or persons that could fulfill this important need.

Some training of existing exporters and longer term collaboration with them would be required in order to help them understand technical and finishing issues, color issues, pricing issues, etc. Each of the exporters could take on a specific area and become a bit of the “expert” in it and they could be responsible for that area of the shipment. As an example, one exporter could work with the review and quality control of the tailoring side of the order, while another could concentrate on the color and dye matching issues. Perhaps they could collaborate on the packaging and final quality control with hang tags, labels, plastic bags, etc.

In an ideal world, it should not be necessary to hold the hands of the market. The justification for subsidies and other market assistance has been thoroughly discounted after fifteen years of structural adjustment and policy reform around the world. However, it is also clear that the conditions of doing business in Africa are so overwhelmingly stacked against the producer/ exporter, for all of the reasons enumerated in this report, that some form of coaching, in the form of additional training, is needed to nudge the producers’/exporters’ entrée into world markets.

AIRD had hoped that some level of support would continue beyond this activity’s contract (which expires in September 2001). USAID’s ATRIP fund did not select this activity for continued support. While some commercial interests are being developed in the U.S. for deepening product relationships with Malian textile and leather artisans, technical production issues and the lack of export agents who understand these more sophisticated product markets pose real threats to success.

Visibility If Mali is to be available to international product designers, its producers and exporters must be visible. Can a private sector association develop and maintain the database necessary to promote such contacts and visibility? What else can be done to promote the visibility of Mali’s unique talents and skills?

Aside from the recent AFE and AIRD-ATA efforts to identify and train Malian crafts and industry people for export, little has been done to organize an exporters’ association. Although two government-run groups exist, a Centre National de Promotion Artisanale (CNPA) and a Fédération Nationale des Artisans Maliens, to date these have been neither export-oriented, nor terribly active in support of private sector activity. Walking into the CNPA off the street, located very close to Bamako’s main market, is a depressing experience. The building appears uninhabited, assistance from an administrator – once located – is offered grudgingly, and there are no samples or posters exhibited to give visitors any sense of talent or professionalism. One realizes quickly that this is a government office, which is not terribly dynamic.

Given our experiences in other countries (South Africa, Morocco, and Vietnam for Salinger, the world for Carpenter), some level of professional organization for self-promotion in country and for marketing abroad will need to take place to make it easier for foreign buyers to identify possible commercial partners in Mali. Rather than a government organization, however, this group should be formed for/by/with private entrepreneurs.

24 In contrast, the SEPA office, while not large or at street level, conveys a totally different impression. The rooms are clean and airy, with samples of Malian artistry everywhere. A larger room is used for showcasing and training, while two of the smaller rooms are art studios which are obviously being used in product development. A fourth small room houses the administrative offices. The project website links Malian artists to potential buyers overseas.

One very exciting piece of visibility appeared in the international popular press when the French magazine Marie Claire featured an article about Mali’s textiles designers in its June 2001 edition.15 The article showcased many of the textile designers with whom this project has worked. It stressed the visual and artistic inspirations of the Malian culture and arts, and offers fabulous free publicity to the western fashion and design worlds which heretofore has barely focused on Africa, let alone Mali. We believe that much more could be done, building upon Mali’s other strengths in world music and cinema, to create a “cultural comparative advantage” around Mali’s unique arts and design to commercialize a Malian “look” that is new, fresh, and has broader consumer appeal than the small, specialized market for African arts and crafts. The Just-Style website also ran an article on Mali’s textile industry earlier in the year.16

Another promised bit of coverage may come from an interview which Homestyle magazine did with Patti Carpenter at the August Gift Fair. One of its reporters roved around the fair looking for “new” products making their début at the fair and noticed the Mali collection at the Aid to Artisans stand. An article is supposed to be forthcoming about Mali, textiles and leather, and the home furnishings and leisure wear collection developed by Carpenter in their October 2001 issue.

One innovation which would go a long way toward enhancing the visibility of Mali’s artisans would be to produce an up-to-date Buyer’s Guide to Mali. Several very sophisticated print guides have been edited in the past, which are a good start.17 These need to be kept up to date, preferably on line, with cell phone numbers and email addresses to facilitate contacts between foreign buyers and Malian suppliers.

Over the longer run, it is in the exporters’ interest to organize themselves into a self-supported association in order to jointly support some of these representational activities. The greatest obstacle to such an association, however, is the exporters themselves. At present, the community is quite small and each producer/exporter is quite specialized in his/her own area. However, because real export flows have been minute, intense competition runs within this community, making collaboration all but impossible. While such competition is entirely understandable, as each tries to jealously guard his/her few contacts and orders, in the longer run, it will be in the interests of all to make it easier for the international market to find them. As Malians establish themselves in these new global product markets, it will become clear that there is plenty of market opportunity for anyone with a competitive product to offer.

15 “Mode: made in Mali,” Marie Claire (juin 2001), pp. 15-28. 16 “Mali: evolving from crafts to commerce.” February 26, 2001. http://just-style.com/ features_detail.asp?art=341. 17 Artisanat du Mali (1998), produced by the Centre National de la Promotion de l’Artisanat includes names, addresses, and phone numbers for a few contact producers in traditional crafts areas popular with tourist markets. Artisanat et Design du Mali (no date), produced by the Ministère de l’Industrie, du Commerce et de l’Artisanat, showcases outstanding, high-quality goods with designers’ names, but without any contact information. Textile artists like Awa Cissé and Tantou Teinture are not included in such guides. 25

Formalities of AGOA How do these product and market development activities in Mali relate to Mali’s eligibility for market access benefits under AGOA?

The Malian government needs to be aware of the requirements of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). While offering duty-free, quota-free access to the U.S. clothing market for sub-Saharan exporters, the bill also includes detailed provisions to protect the U.S. textile and clothing industry against illegal transshipment by non-African exporters through Africa. Mali has been declared eligible, because of its position on economic and political reform, for AGOA’s GSP benefits. However, additional requirements must be met to take advantage of the clothing benefits.

AGOA-eligible countries are required to implement a visa system to certify the exported clothing’s country of origin, and to maintain a production system database in order to be able to report on a timely basis, at the request of the U.S. Customs Service, information on the place of production, the number and identification of types of machinery used in production, the number of workers employed in production, and origin certification from both the manufacturer and exporter. Thus there is a need for coordination between Mali’s Ministry of Handicrafts and its Ministry of Industry in order to assure that country of origin visas and domestic production capacity databases are established and maintained in order to be able to respond to any possible requests for information from the U.S. Customs Service on this. Our experience from Uganda suggests that even when there are private local firms pressing their Ministry of Trade for the AGOA approval to take place in a rapid fashion and even when the U.S. Customs Service virtually hands a ready-made visa draft to the local authorities for adaptation to local laws, the process of finalizing a document acceptable to the U.S. government can take many months.

THE WAY FORWARD

Seeking Foreign Investment Is it reasonable to expect that foreign investment dollars will come into Mali from abroad to take advantage of AGOA? It is not likely that U.S. textile and clothing firms are going to invest directly in Mali. U.S. textile companies are investing in large-scale projects directly overseas in Mexico/the Caribbean and Asia, in countries which offer excellent working conditions, proximity to the U.S., and stable political and economic environments. They are aware of AGOA and Africa’s potential, but they are extremely reluctant to risk assets in countries with insurgent movements and high health risks (McMillan, Pandolfi, and Salinger 1999).

It is much more likely that U.S. firms will strike commercial partnerships of one form or another with existing enterprises that pass initial competitiveness criteria. Here, the problem for Mali is that the American clothing buyer can source garments from existing companies experienced in large-scale production and shipping, where full-package services – meaning local fabrics, trims and findings, finishing services, and skilled freight forwarding – are all available locally. The fact that Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, and South Africa are already exporting successfully to the U.S., while it means increased competition for Mali to gain access to the AGOA cap, is useful in that it creates a positive impression of Africa’s capabilities in American buyers’ minds.

26

Other potential foreign direct investment (FDI) sources include Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis, South Africans, and Mauritians. However, Mali must bear in mind that it competes with all countries of the world to attract FDI resources. Many other countries offer attractive incentives to induce firms to locate inside their borders. Mali has not pursued these as aggressively as others.

Strategic Emphases For Mali Malian authorities should establish an AGOA coordination committee, comprised of government and private sector representatives. It would likely consist of the Ministries of Industry and Trade, Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, Justice, and Finance; Malian investment and export promotion authorities; the Malian artisanal association; chambers of commerce and industry; and other relevant private sector associations (such as the Malian chapter of the West African Enterprise Network).

If the Government of Mali declares AGOA to be a priority area of interest, it will be important to acknowledge the need to integrate agriculture and industry in this effort in order to unite cotton production and fiber processing interests with downstream industrial and artisanal interests. While some investment and operational advantages are accorded to agricultural sectors deemed of key strategic interest, that has not yet been the case for textiles.

Another key policy issue is with regard to implementation of exonération policies with regard to importing raw materials for local processing and re-export. In economies where import substitution is still practiced behind tariff protection barriers, labor-intensive manufacturing for export activities around the world have been nurtured by the creation of physical or virtual export enclaves (Radelet 1999). Mali’s policy makers need to make it clear to textile designers seeking to export finished goods made from imported bazin that the value of the import duty paid on the bazin transformed into export goods is eligible for ex-poste reimbursement. Care needs to be taken to make the rebate system transparent to customs officials as well.

Mali cannot and should not try to do everything at once. Focusing on establishing a credible export track record by producing textile- and leather-based goods under contract and delivering them on time to U.S. clients will allow Malian producers to take advantage of the short-term access (through 2004) to internationally sourced fabric for cut, make, trim, and export to the U.S. for apparel exports. For non-apparel, this will begin to establish Mali in the minds of U.S. wholesalers/retailers as a viable supplier of high-quality goods.

Prioritization of Next Steps As a result of Mali’s presence at the New York International Gift Fair, several U.S. wholesalers agreed to co-finance at least one more return trip by Patti Carpenter to Mali to ensure order fulfillment gets underway, in November 2001. It was also agreed that it would be desirable for Carpenter to follow up during the next visit with new product development to add to the merchandise groupings for the next show. This is an important accomplishment, leveraging USAID’s initial investment with private sector resources and indicates the enthusiasm with which the market has greeted Malian craftsmanship.

Over the longer term, we would envision a training strategy aimed at textile designers, sewing operators, exporters, and financial sector intermediaries to focus on: 27

ƒ technical training in fabric and leather dyeing (color matching, use of alternative dyestuffs, environmentally safe dyeing processes) ƒ technical training in leather tanning to enhance quality and environmental sustainability of traditional processes ƒ technical training in fine sewing and tailoring (larger volume cutting strategies, sewing and finishing techniques, use of specialized equipment for finishing) ƒ product development training (how to monitor international market trends from Mali) ƒ textile/leather industry management training (familiarization with industry best practices in production and trade in order to help Malians modernize their enterprises and management practices) ƒ professional association development (develop a strategy with private artisans for creating an exporters’ association to enhance visibility of Malian craftsmanship to foreign markets) ƒ market training (order tracking and fulfillment, import/export logistics, pricing for export, methods of trade finance, use of bank credit, international banking transfers)

28 ANNEXES

LIST OF PERSONS CONTACTED IN MALI

Adass Ag Oufen COMATEX La Saharienne (Tuareg leather, silver) Aliou Kane, DG Adjoint BP E 2184 Hippodrome Bamako BP 52, Ségou Souk B 36 Maison des Artisans, Bamako Tel: 32.01.83 Tel: 21.12.58 Fax: 32.01.23 Fax 21.98.69 Koumaré Abdine, representant commercial, Email: [email protected] or @yahoo.fr COMATEX à Bamako Tel: 22.56.17 Association des Veuves et Enfants Orphélins de Sabalibougou Souraka Diakité Mudcloth & hand-made papers cooperative Maison des Artisans, Souk A25 BP 715 Atelier Kasobané Bamako, Mali Peinture – Décor intérieur – Costumes Tel: (223) 21.04.63; 24.98.91 (cell) (Bogolan) Manufacturer of leather pillows and slippers in Jiguiseme, Badala SEMA I, Porte no 186, leather and Bazin fabrics Bamako BP 1412 Moustapha Diawarra Kandioura Coulibaly, tel 21.59.13 (bur), Styliste/créateur, Diawousse Création SARL 20.05.43 (dom) Badalabougou SEMA I, rue Pavée Klètigui Dembele, tel 21.50.74 BP 8100 Bamako Boubacar Doumbia, tel 32.02.34 Tel: 22.37.32 Souleymane Goro, tel 21.50.74 Fax: 22.37.32 Bogolan-100% Cotton Hand Spun Fabrics; Email: diawoussecré[email protected] Manufacturer of the Large Zig Zag Bogolan and the “Soft Geo” Bogolan fabrics Fatim mad’in Bko Styliste modéliste Elaine Bellezza Fax: 223 21.49.21 Soutien aux Exportations des Produits Email: [email protected] Artisanaux (SEPA), Action for Enterprise BP 34 s/c USAID Mamadou Léo Keita Bamako, Mali Propriétaire, Indigo (art/artisans africains) Email (personal): [email protected] Tel: 22.08.93 Bruno Badamie Fax: 23.39.33 Souleymane Goro Email: [email protected] Tel: 23.48.89 (office), 21.10.30 (home); 77.47.78 (cell) Bourama Konaté Fax: (223) 23.48.90 Faso Dambé (Tissus traditionnels, Email: [email protected] bogolan/batik, lg wholesaler & exporter) Tel: 22.40.79 bur, 20.56.14 home Awa Cissé Fax: 22.40.49 Teinturière Email: [email protected] Badala Sema I, rue 98, porte n 334, Bamako B.P. 8052 Fatimatou Meite Tel: 22.50.05 Proprietaire, Le Djenné/San Toro Bazin-100% Cotton Jacquard Fabrics; Sister, Awa Meité Manufacturer of the “Indigo” Bazin group of Daughter, Aminata Dramane Traoré fabrics Tel: 21.91.18 (home), 21.30.82 (office), 21.68.03 (office); 74.13.77 (cell) Email: [email protected]

Amadou Touré Chef d’atelier (tailoring) 29 Bamako, Mali Tantou Teinture Tel: 22.16.32 B.P. 1459 Manufacturer of Bazin and Bogolan products Fasso-Kanou including table top items, pillows, robe Bamako, Mali Tel/Fax: 20.03.25 (bur), 20.61.79 (dom) Palais du Vêtement Email: [email protected] Waly Bathily, PDG, Http://www.malinet.ml/pratique/tantou/ Hamed Maiga, coordination and pricing Bazin-100% Cotton Jacquard Fabrics; BP 808, Bamako (zone industrielle) manufacturer of the “Desert Sands” group and Tel: 21.47.50 (bur); 29.71.21 (dom); 77.60.51 “Desert Winds” group Bazin fabrics (cell) Manufacturers of Bazin and Bogolan products- Tuareg Leather Boxes suppliers table top, pillows, jewelry rolls 1/ Omar Boubacar (located through the marché at the Hippodrome) Manufacturer of the leather Sidy Sow boxes with the stepped designs and geometric BP 1690, Bamako patterns in the bright colors that coordinate with Tel: 20.06.11 (home) the Bazin fabrics Email: [email protected] Designer of Bogolan-inspired motifs, using 2/ Issa Yatara (located through Yousef Traoré at modern fabrics, to create garments and the Ngolalina Marché, Tel: (223) 21.17.84) accessories Manufacturer of the round leather boxes with the contrast bottoms and geometric stampings that coordinate with the Bazin fabrics

3/ Boubacar (located in the souk in the Maison des Artisans, Tel: (223) 74.48.95 (cell phone))

30 ALTERNATIVE TRADE ORGANIZATIONS IN U.S.

Aid to Artisans (ATA) SERRV 331 Wethersfield Avenue PO Box 365, 500 Main Street Hartford, Connecticut 06114 New Windsor, Maryland 21776-0365 Phone: (860) 947-3344 Phone 800-422-5915 www.aidtoartisans.org www.serrv.org

Marketplace: Handwork of India Ten Thousand Villages 3125 Commercial Avenue, 704 Main Street Northbrook, Illinois 60062 PO Box 500 Phone: (800) 726-8905 Akron, Pennsylvania 17501-0500 www.marketplaceindia.com Phone (717) 859-8100 www.villages.ca PEOPLink 11110 Midvale Road Traditions Fair Trade Kensington, Maryland 20895 300 5th Avenue SW Phone: (301) 949-6625, (800) 567-6029 Olympia, Washington 98501 www.peoplink.org Phone (360) 705-2819 www.traditionsfairtrade.org

31 REFERENCES

Abernathy, Frederick H.; John T. Dunlop; Janice H. Hammond; and David Weil. (1999) A Stitch in Time: Lean Retailing and the Transformation of Manufacturing – Lessons from the Apparel and Textile Industries. New York: Oxford University Press.

Baffes, John. (2000) “Experience with Reform of Cotton Markets.” Paper presented at XXIV conference of the International Association of Agricultural Economists, Berlin, August 13-18, 2000.

Carpenter, Patti Y. (2001) “Mali In-Depth Product Design And Product Development Assistance: Final Report.” Report prepared for Associates for International Resources and Development. June 17.

Dickerson, Kitty G. (1995) Textiles and apparel in the global economy, 2nd edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. (3rd edition now available)

Glock, Ruth E. and Grace I. Kunz. (2000) Apparel Manufacturing: Sewn Product Analysis. 3rd edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Krugman, Paul R. (1995) “Increasing Returns, Imperfect Competition and the Positive Theory of International Trade.” In Gene M. Grossman and Kenneth Rogoff, eds., Handbook of International Economics, Volume III, pp. 1243-1278. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Littrell, Mary and Marsha Ann Dickson. (1999) Social Responsibility in the Global Market: Fair Trade of Cultural Products. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

McMillan, Margaret; Selina Pandolfi; and Lynn Salinger. (1999) “Promoting Foreign Direct Investment into Labor-Intensive, Manufacturing Exports in Developing Countries.” CAER2 Research Report. Prepared for USAID/G/EM. June 1999. Presented at “Development Assistance in the 21st Century” conference, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 30-October 1.

Radelet, Steven. (1999) “Manufactured Exports, Export Platforms, and Economic Growth.” CAER II Discussion Paper No. 43. Cambridge: Harvard Institute for International Development. November. http://www.hiid.harvard.edu/projects/caer/papers/paper43/ paper43.pdf

Salinger, B. Lynn; Haroon Bhorat; Diane Flaherty; and Malcolm Keswell. (1998) Promoting the Competitiveness of Textiles and Clothing Manufacture in South Africa. Prepared for USAID’s EAGER/Trade project (www.eagerproject.com). January.

Salinger, B. Lynn; Hamadaou Sylla; Jim Crook; and Mark Perrings. (1999) “Investment and Export Prospects in Mali’s Textile Industry.” Report prepared for the Malian Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Handicrafts and for USAID/Bamako under the aegis of the Africa Trade and Investment Program. July.

32 Salinger, B. Lynn. (2000) “Vietnam’s Textile and Garments Industry: The Challenges Ahead.” Prepared for Institute of Economics/IDRC project on Trade Liberalization and Competitiveness in Vietnam. Hanoi.

Salinger, B. Lynn. (2001a) AGOA Textile and Garments: What Future for Uganda’s Exports? With Alan Greenwood. Report prepared for the Nathan-MSI Group’s Uganda Private Sector Trade Policy Capacity Building Project.

Salinger, B. Lynn. (2001b) “Mali: evolving from crafts to commerce.” http://just-style.com/ features_detail.asp?art=341

Salinger, B. Lynn. (2001c) “Can African clothing companies learn to compete?” http://just- style.com/ features_detail.asp?art=304

U.S. Agency for International Development. (2000) African Growth and Opportunity Act: Implementation Guide. October. http://www.agoa.gov/impguide.pdf

U.S. Customs Service. (2001) What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About: The African Growth and Opportunity Act. May. http://www.customs.ustreas.gov/ imp-exp1/comply/icp065.pdf

U.S. Trade Representative’s Office. (2001) U.S. Trade and Investment Policy Toward Sub- Saharan Africa and Implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. May. http://www.ustr.gov/regions/africa/repo_2001.pdf

33