138 million reasons to believe in the future of Portuguese industry

There are 138 million reasons to believe in the sustainable future of the Portuguese textile and clothing industry. This industry takes on the challenge of working to become a leading international player in this sector. Thus, it will invest as never before for this paradigm shift, in a project that involves 54 sponsors, including companies, universities, technology centres and other entities (whose overall investment will be precisely EUR 138 million, within the framework of the RRP – Recovery and Resilience Plan).

"Our goal is to increase our pace and boost change, while ensuring and even raising quality standards with high potential in different market segments", explains Braz Costa, Managing Director of CITEVE – Technology Centre of the Textile and Clothing Industry of Portugal (Centro Tecnológico das Indústrias Têxtil e do Vestuário de Portugal).

Named "Be@t" (stemming from “bioeconomy at textiles”), the project will enable "decisive steps to be taken towards a cross-cutting transformation of the sector which, in about three years, will allow it to manage everything from raw materials to design, research and production", explains CITEVE’s Managing Director.

The investment of companies, research and technology centres and universities demonstrates the level of commitment that has been placed on Be@t from the outset in the pursuit of solutions that meet the ever-increasing legislative and societal demands in terms of respect for the environment. This search includes the discovery of new raw materials, the development of other techniques, technologies and manufacturing and industrial processing equipment, which means creative and research challenges and a huge investment effort.

However, as Braz Costa points out, the European funds channelled through the RRP and the investment of the various sponsors will be "an opportunity to effectively enable this conversion of the sector towards a sustainable bioeconomy through Be@t". Thus, "compliance with environmental protection principles and objectives will be achieved and, at the same time, the development of new strategies for conquering the market, both nationally and internationally, since the project includes the promotion of the sector in various stages and reinforcing the prestige of the Portuguese textile and clothing industry", concluded the managing director at CITEVE.

This involves discovering new raw materials, developing alternative manufacturing and processing techniques, technologies and equipment, which also means "creative and research challenges and a huge investment effort".