Three years ago in the immediate wake of the abolition of the international Multi-Fibre Arrangement, the Mauritian textile industry was in deep trouble. Output had fallen for four consecutive years, declining by a third while employment was down to 67,000 people from more than 91,000 at then end of the 1990s. The Export Processing Zone’s (EPZ) share of gross domestic product had plummeted below 7 per cent from 12.5 per cent and the island was thick with gloomy forecasts of the future.

Pundits said the industry that had grown up on the back of trade preferences in the European Union could not survive the onslaught of low-cost competition from China and other Asian manufacturers. They were wrong. After turning around in 2006, textile and clothing output surged 10 per cent last year, net exports which had fallen by a fifth enjoyed a strong rebound, but the employment shake-out – 27,000 job losses since 2000 – continues.