Nasa Garment 1st Ethiopian firm in HIP to export to Canada

Addis Ababa, April 18, 2020 (FBC) -Nasa Garment Plc has become the first Ethiopian company from the Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP) to export its products to Canada.

Founded in 2019, the firm on April 8 exported to Canada a container with 21,000 units of apparel, including shirts, trousers, active wear and sweaters.

Canada offers duty-free privileges to the East African country’s products.

The company is owned by Saron and Goitom Afework and can make 30,000 pieces of clothing a day with its 30 production lines.

It employs 340 workers and it is expected to hire 2,100 more when it becomes fully operational.

Nasa started production in January 2020 and will ship products to Canada every week, according to the English weekly newspaper, Addis Fortune.

The company plans to earn $1.5 million from exports this year and expects to earn $7 million dollars next year,  said Raghavendra Pattar, Group chief executive officer of the company.

During the past eight months of this fiscal, the country’s textile and garment industry generated $129 million from exports, a 32% increase over the same period last year.

The volume also registered a 4,100 tonne increase from the preceding year.

Nasa, set up with an investment of $5 million, is preparing to venture into the second phase of investment at Bole Lemi Industrial Park.

Expected to cost $11 million, the plant is planned to be fully operational in 2022. The second plant will manufacture denim with 7,000 employees.