Orders of Moroccan-made garments are on the rise again this year after a drop in demand at the end of 2022, with new interest from Northern Europe for corporate apparel and knitwear, according to Fatima-Zohra Alaoui, director general of the Association Marocaine des Industries du Textile et de l'Habillement (AMITH), Morocco’s textile association.
AMITH represents the North African country’s whole textile industry, which is made up of more than 1,200 companies employing around 200,000 people.
Inditex, the Spanish company that owns brands such as Zara and Bershka, makes up a sizeable chunk of Morocco’s textile imports. Some 60% of the North African country’s exports go to Spain, and most of those exports go to Inditex.
But in the last quarter of 2022, Inditex as well as H&M and other major clothing brands reduced their orders. Inflation was high so spending power was low. Global warming meant that the winter was warmer than usual, so customers were buying less new seasonal wear. Many of the large brands and retailers had large inventories so they slowed down on orders, Alaoui said.
