Bercy steps up to promote French fabric masks

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In France, two representatives of the textile industry were received at the Ministry of the Economy on Monday afternoon to find outlets for the hundreds of French companies which have converted to the manufacture of cloth masks, at the height of the pandemic, and who today cannot sell their stock.

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Last March, the executive had encouraged industrialists whose activity was at a standstill to make fabric masks to make up for the glaring shortage. A D system, pending the supply of surgical masks, Made in China.

Some 370 French companies got to work and even invested in making 25 million masks a day. A group called Savoir Faire Ensemble was created to link producers and buyers.

But paradoxically today, more than one in ten companies are left with their inventory on their hands. In the meantime, France has stocked up on masks and 40 million French fabric masks have not been sold.

We started from 500,000 masks per day to reach 4 million, which represents large quantities ...

Yves Dubief, president of the Union of Textile Industries.

Ariane Gaffuri

Bercy therefore wants to encourage businesses and consumers to buy these masks. He therefore asked the Union of Textile Industries and the company Le Slip français to contact economic players, all sectors combined in France and abroad and convince them to buy French.

The aim is to sell unsold masks but also to consolidate public stocks in the event of a second wave or another health crisis.

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• France
• Coronavirus
• Industry

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