New Delhi, Friday, 20 January 2023: CITI in association with Innovation Centre Denmark (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark), Lifestyle and Design Cluster Denmark, and Confederation of Danish Industries organized a half-day Workshop on the proposed EU Regulations on Textiles and their Impact on Indian Textile Producers in a hybrid mode on January 20, 2022.

Shri T Rajkumar, Chairman CITI, delivered the Welcome Address at the workshop. In his welcome address, he remarked that the industry as global citizens appreciate and understands the overall need for sustainability in products and manufacturing processes, better understanding of the Rationale and Requirement also helps in better appreciation and voluntary adoption of the same, which is important for long term compliance to such requirements.

Mr Rajkumar while sharing India – EU trade in Textiles acknowledged that as far as EU-27 is concerned, it is the 2nd largest export market for India’s Textile & Apparel Products especially Apparel and Made-ups with India exporting Textile & Apparel products amounting to about US$ 7 bn which accounts for about 17% of India’s total T&A exports to the world. EU-27 will undoubtedly play a central role in India’s vision of achieving US$ 100 bn Textile & Apparel exports by 2030.

Various global initiatives like the upcoming EU legislation, and initiatives for developing Best Available Technology (BAT) which is a reference document in line with the EU BAT, and UNIDO initiatives on Green Technology, highlight the growing relevance of steering technological innovation in this area, he said.

He concluded that the upcoming legislation will not only impact India but is expected to bring several changes in the global supply chain. Hence, there is a dire need for India to strengthen its sustainability efforts so as to stand on equal footing with the EU as compared to other developed countries.

Commenting on the Green Textile Project, Eske Bo Rosenberg, Consul General of Denmark to India and Head of Trade and Innovation says “The Green Textile initiative is inspired by the unique Indo-Danish Green Strategic Partnership – a political framework binding our two countries together in a close partnership and pursuit of a greener, more sustainable future. The initiative aims at supporting a green transition of the international textile supply chain, and is a great example of a tangible partnership, where key ingredients such as research, innovation and tech transfer, contributes to the goal of the Green Strategic Partnership.”

Giving an overview of the Green Textile Project Ms Anandita Prakash, Innovation Centre Denmark, Head of Emerging Technologies briefed about the Green Textiles project which aims to create sustainable and circular impact in the Indo-Danish textile value chain. The ongoing project will provide an overview and mapping of the Indo- Danish fashion and textile industry, with a focus on circularity.

Highlighting EU regulation on textiles and upcoming developments, Mr Kim Hjerrild, Lifestyle & Design Cluster Denmark, Head of Circular Economy gave a detailed presentation on “The EU Strategy on Textiles” highlighting the various requirements of the proposed EU Framework Green deal and how Danish industries have progressed so far and an overview of key initiatives impacting textiles. While Ms. Marie Busck, Danish Association of Fashion & Textile, Head of CSR & Sustainability, shared the EU’s Vision of the Textile Strategy for 2030 where all the textile products should be durable, repairable and recyclable, made of recyclable fibres, free from hazardous chemicals, etc. She further stated that the producers would take the responsibility for their products along the value chain, including when they become waste. The circular textile ecosystem will be driven by sufficient capacities for innovative fibre-to-fibre recycling and incineration and landfill should be reduced to a minimum.

The industry stakeholders raised several concerns they had with regard to the proposed EU Regulations on Sustainability, Circularity and Recycling, especially with regard to the capacity of the SMEs to adopt the changes in the short time that has been proposed for implementation of these regulations.

CITI plans to continue its collaboration with the Innovation Centre, Denmark to help the industry understand and adopt the sustainability regulations.