Rivatex CEO Thomas Kipkurgat said the firm requires more than 36,000 bales of cotton or 7.2 million kilogrammes of cotton annually but does not get even half of the amount.
The firm thus operates far below its capacity after the government invested more than Sh7 billion to revive its operations.
“We have new investors coming in and the demand for cotton will almost triple hence the need for us to work with farmers in increasing cotton production,” Kipkurgat said.
He said there was need to revive cotton farming in 24 counties where the soils and weather are favourable.
Kipkurgat said locally produced cotton would help reduce the cost of production and enable the company and others to create more jobs.
“We need to look at the whole textile chain from cotton growing to ginnery and production at firms like Rivatex so that we get maximum out of the sector and create more jobs for our people.”
Kipkurgat has been instrumental in the revival of Rivatex and led the expansion programmes to the level where it now. It employs about 1,200 people directly and also benefits thousands of others indirectly.
Last week, Principal Secretary for Industry Dr Juma Mukhwana toured Rivatex and said the government targets to create 500,000 new jobs in the textile industry within the next five years through full revival of the cotton industry and related sectors.
Dr Mukhwana said the textile sector is one of the key areas which the government has earmarked on to help drive quick economic growth by improving livelihoods of farmers and creating new jobs.
He said within the last five years the government had invested heavily in Rivatex which is now performing well and will receive further support.
The challenge for the firm he said, has been lack of adequate cotton and other support infrastructure such as ginneries to enable the company operate at full capacity.
“We have new machines and great manpower at Rivatex but it's operating at less than 40 per cent of its capacity due to an acute shortage of cotton which is the main raw material,” Dr Mukhwana said.
He said this year the government has budgeted Sh200 million to support cotton farming in various parts of the country.
He asked farmers in Western, Nyanza and Eastern regions to grow cotton to support Rivatex and the country to go back to profitable textile manufacturing and export.
Dr Mukhwana said currently, the sector employs about 50,000 people but had potential to create many jobs hence the government's interest to work with other stakeholders and partners in the sector.
He said Kenya was exporting quota and duty free textiles to the US and that the country had not been able to satisfy the available market. The country exports textile goods worth about Sh50 billion yet it has opportunity to expand the exports to more than Sh500 billion.
“There is a huge unsatisfied demand for our textiles and apparels in the USA and Europe yet we have huge potential and capacity to do more and even create a better economy including jobs for our people,” Dr Mukhwana said.
-Edited by SKanyara
