Stepping into Africa
African clients have been demanding higher quality in recent years, with some visiting China to select the clothes themselves.
A businessman from Kenya, with the Chinese name Li Chenfa, has been working in secondhand clothes wholesales in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province for six years, according to a report in the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily. He buys clothes from Guangdong and transports them to port cities south of the Sahara. The business has turned him from a moderately rich person to a millionaire with a beautiful American wife.
"The quality of the secondhand clothes is good in Guangzhou, which is close to the sea and transportation is convenient," Li told the paper.
Though some developed countries have a share of the African secondhand clothes market, they still face challenges. Secondhand clothes are forbidden in some African countries including Nigeria, and other African countries have varying import tariffs, CBN reported.
China has banned the import of secondhand clothes, citing health and safety concerns. China also prohibits the resale of secondhand clothes, but allows them to be recycled and remade into raw materials.
"Secondhand clothes are not among the list of items forbidden to be exported from China to overseas countries and regions," an insider surnamed Liang who is close to the import and export authorities in Guangzhou told the Global Times.
According to Chen, secondhand clothes can smoothly pass China's export customs, and are treated the same as other exported commodities, except for the fact they don't enjoy export tax rebates in China.
The sometimes vague nature of these laws have prompted some Chinese businessmen to turn to PR agencies who have done work with African customs departments, the Nanfang Daily reported.
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