Mediterranean Textiles and Clothing: Competitive Threat or Investment Opportunity?
A Textiles Intelligence research report on seven Mediterranean producing countries, read as both threat and opportunity
Mediterranean Rim textile and clothing production has grown rapidly since the mid 1970s. Low labour costs, government incentives and favourable treatment of imports by the European Community have provided the stimulus for growth. This Textiles Intelligence report focuses on the textile and clothing industries in Algeria, Egypt, Greece, Malta, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey. It examines the reasons for growth and the prospects for future expansion in each of these seven major producing and exporting countries. The question in its title is deliberately double-edged: the same low-cost Mediterranean production that threatened established European producers also offered those producers, and other foreign firms, places to invest. Textiles Intelligence, formed in 1992 as a spin-off from the Economist Intelligence Unit, provides global business information to the international fibre, textile and apparel industry and publishes over 30 in-depth research reports.
An Overview of the Mediterranean Rim
Part 1 introduces the region as a whole in a single overview chapter: the importance of textiles and clothing around the Mediterranean Rim, exports, industry structure, and international competitiveness and future prospects. The growth story it frames began in the mid 1970s and rested on three stimuli working together — low labour costs in the producing countries, government incentives designed to attract and support textile and clothing production, and favourable treatment of imports by the European Community, which gave Mediterranean producers privileged access to the large market on the Rim's northern shore.
Seven Country Chapters, One Pattern of Questions
Part 2 gives each country its own chapter, and every chapter asks the same four questions, which is what makes the seven directly comparable. For Algeria, Egypt, Greece, Malta, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey in turn, the report sets out a summary and the country background; describes the country's textile and clothing industry; assesses corporate strategies and international competitiveness; and identifies the opportunities in that country for foreign textile and clothing firms. A reader weighing the Rim as a sourcing base or an investment location can therefore hold any two countries side by side — industry against industry, competitiveness against competitiveness, opportunity against opportunity — without translating between different frameworks.
Future Prospects and the Supporting Data
Part 3 closes the report with a single chapter on Mediterranean Rim textiles and clothing future prospects, drawing the country evidence together into conclusions about where expansion would continue. Two appendices support the analysis: Appendix A lists the main suppliers of fibres, textiles and clothing to the European Community, placing the seven profiled countries in the full competitive field supplying the EC; and Appendix B gives labour cost comparisons, the fundamental variable behind the region's growth and the first number any sourcing or investment decision in the Rim depends on. For European producers, the report's value was its refusal to choose between its title's two readings: the country chapters document the competitive threat in detail, and the opportunities sections in the same chapters document where that threat could be turned into a production partnership.
Reading the Seven Countries Together
Taken as a set, the seven country chapters also show the Rim's internal range: Greece appears as a member of the European Community itself, Turkey and the North African producers as external suppliers with preferential access, and Malta as a small island producer — four different relationships to the same northern market, which is why the report treats competitiveness country by country rather than awarding the whole Rim a single verdict.
Common Questions
Which Mediterranean countries does the report cover?
Algeria, Egypt, Greece, Malta, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey — each with a chapter covering country background, the textile and clothing industry, corporate strategies and international competitiveness, and opportunities for foreign firms.
What drove the growth of Mediterranean Rim production?
Growth since the mid 1970s was stimulated by low labour costs, government incentives, and favourable treatment of imports by the European Community.
What supporting data do the appendices provide?
Appendix A lists the main suppliers of fibres, textiles and clothing to the European Community, and Appendix B gives labour cost comparisons across the supplying countries.