Over 5 000 knitwear to be exported next year
By Bongile Mavuso/The Swazi Observer, Swaziland
Over 5 000 hand- knitted and crouched garments will be exported to Ireland by the beginning of next year.
This was revealed by an Irish family business yesterday during a courtesy call they made to the Indlovukazi at the Embho Royal House. The family are the buyers of the products who have said have a wide market in Ireland.
Gerry and Ann Robinson expressed their joy of finally meeting the Queen Mother, who initiated the project that involves rural women from five Tinkhundla Centres.
During a press briefing, Gerry Robinson said they expected to buy about 2000 garments at the beginning of the trade agreements which should be before the end of the year, a figure expected to rise a few months after. Robinson said such orders normally took about 12- 18 months and the 5000 garments would be exported to Ireland monthly. He could not state the price of the exports at the time this report was compiled. The Queen Mother expressed gratitude to the investors for having an interest in the country and helping local women generate income out of their hands.
On the other hand, Elizabeth West who is the local trainer said local women had great talent in as far as knitting and crouched garments was concerned. “We have done the same project in Zimbabwe but we are content with the standard we got in Swaziland. We get along very well with them and we are happy to be working with people who have such a fantastic outlook of life,†she said. West said local women were the best trainees in their history so far and the training is going on well so far, having started at the beginning of May.
She said at present they would sample the garment patterns to the Robinsons who would then take them to their market in Ireland before they could start producing.
“After they have approved the designs, then they can place an order and we start producing.
Enterprise and Employment Minister Lutfo Dlamini was also present during the visit together with Swaziland Trading House (STH) Director Dumsani Dlamini. The project is administrated by the STH and local women have already started training on the knitting and crouched patterns and garment designs to be exported.
