Waste Utilization: China Becomes The Largest Second-Hand Clothing Exporter In Africa

In Africa, millions of tons of used clothes flow into the clothing market every year. Behind them is a business worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

In 2023, the global sales of second-hand clothing will reach 211 billion dollars, up 19% year on year, In 2024, the size of the clothing market in Africa alone has reached an astonishing $70.58 billion, with a compound growth rate of 5.16%.

This market will certainly not lack Chinese gold diggers.

Africa, a continent with nearly one sixth of the world's population, has now become the world's largest second-hand ready to wear import market. Among them, Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, has the largest second-hand market in East Africa, where tens of thousands of second-hand clothes are gathered and transferred every day, forming an important part of the African second-hand market.

In 2021, China will become the largest second-hand clothing exporter in Africa. Among them, Kenya is the main importer in Africa, and China's second-hand clothing accounts for more than 40%. The survey report of China National Garment Association shows that in 2021, Africa's second-hand clothing imports will reach 1.84 billion dollars, including 624 million dollars of second-hand clothing exports from China to Africa.

For people in many African countries, buying new clothes is often regarded as a luxury consumption. In economically backward African countries, only 10% of consumers can afford new clothes, 50% are wearing second-hand clothes, and the remaining 40% can not even afford old clothes. Many families still rely on clothes donated by overseas charities to survive.

The second-hand clothing from China, compared with the second-hand clothing from Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan and South Korea, has become a more practical and popular choice because of its user-friendly price and novel style, which greatly meets their growing demand for clothing.

Before entering the international market, these old clothes were stored in garbage stations, community clothing recycling bins and other waste disposal sites. After being recycled, disinfected, sorted and packed by the sorting company, they are sold to the second-hand clothing export company. They are sorted, screened and processed according to the quality, type, applicable season, etc. Then they are compressed into blocks for packaging, shipped to Africa, and transported to various towns and villages in African countries through local agents for sale.

Agents will see the old clothes inside through the package of the compression package, and consider whether the quality is new, the color is beautiful, and the style is trendy; Even if they bought it once, most people still have to shop around, or even just choose a package, and it takes a whole morning to choose. Because they can only afford one package of money. If they lose money, four or five children will have no food in the next three or five days. This is a problem of survival.

Second hand clothes are not only the daily necessities of Africans, they have already penetrated into the local economic lifeline. Kenya has a population of 54 million, several million of whom make a living in the second-hand clothing industry, accounting for nearly 10% of the country's working population.

In the past, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and other countries have all proposed to ban the import of second-hand clothes, because it would affect their textile industry. On the contrary, second-hand clothes can not only meet the needs of local people, but also provide jobs and support social transformation. If social problems do not change, second-hand clothes will always be in demand. As long as there is demand, the market will always exist, and policy alone is inexhaustible. Ordinary people can't afford the new clothes produced by the domestic textile industry, which are generally exported to earn foreign exchange. Only when the economy has developed, people's income has increased, and food and clothing, medical care and education problems have been solved, can they afford to buy new clothes.