After being in shortage of fabric masks, France seems to be on the way to overproduction. Explanations.
The masks seem to be to the government what Captain Haddock’s band-aid is, a series of quacks that sticks to his skin. After a rush on fabric masks during confinement and at the start of deconfinement, requests have been dwindling for a few weeks… to the point that French companies are accumulating stocks. A perilous situation for many companies already weakened by the economic crisis. This is particularly the case of the manager of the textile factory “Atelier d’Ariane” near Troyes. It recruited around twenty people and invested 300,000 euros in this adventure. “There is anger, a feeling of injustice, we say to ourselves that we have mobilized, we have the impression that we are going to pay for the broken pot. Our commitment will not pay off if we have to stay with stocks on hand”regrets the head of the company to public television.
Same unease in the Lyon region where according to France 3 dozens of regional companies are already deploring 450,000 unsold masks. “Orders that cancel each other out are mainly from distributors, who themselves see orders canceled by their customers”explains Grégory Poisay, general manager of Boldoduc at the regional channel.
Suspicions of unfair competition
However, the drop in consumption of fabric masks does not seem to be the only explanation. “Orders plummet, when not canceled in the face of competition from lower-cost import products“says Pierric Chalvin, the general delegate at Unitex, which represents all the activities of the sector in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, in the pages of Les Échos.
The lure of cheap Asian items rather than supporting local production? A lack of patriotism that annoys business leaders especially when it seems to come from the government. “We cannot ask the sector to mobilize and drop it two months later“, deplores Pierric Chalvin to the Echoes. His grievance? The Ministry of Economy’s order for around 10 million washable face masks in Vietnam. Scandal ? Not for Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Secretary of State to the Minister for the Economy. “At the time the order was placed to meet needs, no French supplier was able to supply. This is an order that dates back to April, and it is an order that is not recurring” she defends with “the eye of 20h” on France 2.
In a letter, Guillaume de Seynes, president of the Strategic Committee for the fashion and luxury sector, asks the government to buy back unsold masks. And above all to now order from French companies. According to “l’œil du 20h” from France 2, nearly 2 million fabric masks would not find takers. A Thousand Billion Thousand Sabords!
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