A group of Mauritian businessmen are shopping in South Africa for trade opportunities, especially in the textile and clothing manufacturing sector. The group, Enterprise Mauritius, arrived in Durban yesterday and will be in Johannesburg this week to promote the country's trade opportunities in textile manufacturing, accessories, jewellery and agriculture products.They are already talking to big chains such as Mr Price, based in Durban, Ackermans and Reebok about opportunities.Enterprise Mauritius was in Cape Town earlier this year to expand its manufacturing contracts with retailers Woolworths and Foschini, which source some of their production in Mauritius.The Indian Ocean island already does business with the likes of Edcon and major brand names such as Calvin Klein, Puma, River Island and Levi's, among others.Europe and the US account for more than 50% of Mauritian textile and clothing products. South Africa accounts for about 24%.Mauritius also exports products duty-free to Europe, the US and South Africa.Arvind Radhakrishna, Enterprise Mauritius CE, said the trade mission aimed to strengthen relationships and find new buyers."The timing of the mission is particularly opportune in light of the depreciation of the rand."Mauritian manufacturers enjoy zero rate of duty when entering the South African market."Mauritius' 40-year-old textile and apparel industry employs about 55000 people and has seen textile imports to South Africa increase by 400% in the past eight years.Radhakrishna encouraged South Africa's fabric manufacturers to come and set up in Mauritius."We have a stable financial sector and one of the best air-freight systems, which shortens the cycle time for the delivery of products," explained Radhakrishna.Like South Africa, Mauritius has been adversely affected by cheap textile and apparel imports from Asian countries.Previously, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape were known as the textile and apparel manufacturing hubs of South Africa, employing about 120000 people. But cheap imports have wiped out as many as 50000 jobs in the industry in the past decade. The South African clothing, textile, footwear and leather industry currently employs about 70000 people."Our factories were smart enough to innovate so they could maintain that competitiveness and productivity," explained Geerish Bucktowonsing, manager at Enterprise Mauritius.He added that China and Bangladesh were not competitors because Mauritius focused on a niche in the market."We do added-value products and in smaller quantities, with a quick turnaround time," he said.Radhakrishna said many retailers, especially in Europe and the US, were applying ethical principles when sourcing for products."We do not use child labour. We are conscious of how we treat our workers. This makes us not only competitive, but also credible."With only a few clothing and textile manufacturers setting up in Mauritius, Radhakrishna said there was huge interest from local companies to use his country as a manufacturing hub to capture the whole of Africa...