Just a few weeks ago, the whole world tore off the protective masks, all the way to the airport tarmac. " There was not a single fabric mask produced in France, " recalls Pierric Chalvin, general delegate of Unitex, a federation of textile companies in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. In this historic stronghold of the French industry, no less than 45 companies have mobilized to produce fabric masks for non-sanitary use, as part of the Resilience Project launched by the government. A total of 300 companies responded to the state's call.
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" We produced five million masks per week, " explains Pierric Chalvin. " Until the import masks flood the market ... ". Ten days after the deconfinement, orders from companies, local authorities but also from large retailers stopped net, with the consequence, more than 400,000 unsold items and kilos of raw materials on their hands for
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