Local textiles manufactures have expressed their preparedness to curtail the activities of pirates and traders, who smuggle substandard wax prints into the country.
A court order is being sought by the local manufactures to empower them to clamp down on the activities of dealers.
The Ghanaian market is flooded with pirated textiles suspected to have been smuggled into the country from China.
Some of them come with fake patents and registered logos of local manufacturing companies such as the Akosombo Textiles Limited (ATL), Ghana Textiles Print (GTP) and Printex.
The pirated wax prints also have copied labels of the Ghana Standards Board.
The illegal business has in recent years led to the sacking of many textile workers while some local manufacturers have had to diversify their operations.
To fight the illegal practice, the Ministry of Trade & Industry set up taskforces to curb and eliminate the menace.
The taskforces undertook unannounced market and warehouse swoops.
Abraham Koomson, General Secretary of the Textile, Garment & Leather Employees Union said, �The swoops have not helped enough and we are going to reinforce our actions.�
This, he explained, was because information was usually leaked to the perpetrators of the illegality.
�When we go on these raids, we realize that the owners of the big shops lock up their shops and so we are only able to arrest the few table-top traders and hawkers.�
He added: �We are now preparing to go to court for a warrant to enter and break any textile shop or warehouse that is locked during our raid.�
So far, most of the textile companies have folded up some sections of their operations including the spinning and weaving units.
ATL is the only integrated textile mill that maintains its entire units.
Over 1000 workers of the Akosombo Textile limited (ATL) risk being laid off as the company has noted it can no longer keep its current workforce of 1,400.
Abraham Koomson, who disclosed this to CITY &BUSINESS GUIDE in an interview said, �The situation is serious. They are killing our local textile industry.�
The survival of the industry, Mr Koomson said, would require commitment on the part of government in the form of policy and other interventions.
�The industry is now in coma. In fact, we are on the verge of collapse. The market swoops that we have been doing are to try to see if we can revive it. But at this stage, the chances of recovery are 50-50. We have waited for far too long,� he said.
He also complained about erratic power supply and water shortages.
On Friday, December 2, 2011, over 400 workers of Printex did not go to work as a result of the shortage of water for four days.
�We appreciate the efforts of government but we need more commitment in terms of policies and also address the utility issues.�
Examination of some of the seized fabrics revealed that they were produced with 28 banned chemicals such as CI acid red, CI basic red, CI direct blue and many others. These chemicals can cause cancer and some skin diseases.
<<Print>>