Morocco’s Textile Industry in Crisis: Thousands of Workshops Face Closure Amid Pandemic

Faced with the consequences of covid-19 on the textile-clothing sector, the operators are asking for help. Several small formal and informal workshops that supply the local market are agonizing due to the lack of buyers. L’Économiste reports that the operators in the sector wish the reopening of the stores to save the season. It is during the holiday periods that they realize the bulk of their annual turnover, specified the daily. Yet, on the eve of the end of Ramadan, merchants and ready-to-wear manufacturers for the domestic market are experiencing serious difficulties. The Eid period will not be the oxygen boost for the local textile-clothing sector, unlike previous years, informs the same source.

"If the exporting companies continue to work, the structures whose production is intended for the local market are still at a standstill," deplored Mustapha Chraka, secretary general of the association of medium and small textile and clothing companies (AMPETH). The representative indicated that tens of thousands of workshops and jobs are threatened by the crisis facing the sector, or about 40,000 people, notes L’Économiste.

For the secretary general of AMPETH, the operators who cover the entire national territory are asking at least for the reopening of retailers and semi-wholesalers to sell the stocks. He assured that the members of the association are committed to respecting the safety standards in force. According to the newspaper, the operators in the textile-clothing sector are facing competition from large stores. Confinement is forcing some consumers to prefer the clothes of hypermarkets. A considerable loss of earnings for local manufacturers and retailers.