Abstract: It’s known to us all that America has the largest export volume of used clothes undoubtedly. If we want to know about the unique trade of America, we should go to some countries in Africa such as Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya to see the local mitumba market first, namely the used-clothes market.

  It’s known to us all that America has the largest export volume of used clothes undoubtedly. If we want to know about the unique trade of America, we should go to some countries in Africa such as Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya to see the local mitumba market first, namely the used-clothes market. ( “Mitumba” means “used” and “second-hand” in Swahili. Now the local collectively call used clothes as mitumba.) The markets there have different scales but the common features are crowded and end-to-end simple booths. Mitumba is hanged from top to the bottom of these booths. There’s everything someone expects to find such as T-shirts, jeans, slap-up suits and unique model clothes. Through the brands of the used clothes, especially the words printed on the clothes, it’s not hard to tell which country they are from. Do you want to know of which country mitumba is the cheapest? The stallholders will respond spontaneously and simultaneously: America.

  The reason why used clothes from America is the cheapest is obvious because of its large quantity. The clothes for woman from America is cheaper than clothes for man. The reason is the same: large quantity. This seems to be reasonable: the clothes thrown away by American women is more than clothes thrown by men. Although there’s no specific data, we can see from mitumba markets in Africa that America is the biggest country of exporting used clothes in the world.


  Key words: used-clothes supply; used-clothes export