France's face-mask production goes overboard; 20 million units unsold after Covid

French praised altruism of ir prized textile and luxury goods companies when production facilities got diverted from churning out latest fashions to making cloth masks designed to protect general public from coronavirus. w, companies that helped France avoid a feared short of virus-filtering face wear for everyday use say y need help unloing a surplus of 20 million masks. y asked French government for assistance promoting and finding buyers for unsold output of industry's national effort.

Hundreds of textile and clothing manufacturers answered government's call for millions of masks superior to homeme versions. President Emmanuel Macron last month sported a military-tested model embroidered with tri-color national flag to vertise Me in France masks. Yet within weeks, demand dried up for domestically produced masks that sold for a few euros at supermarkets and pharmacies or were available in bulk for free distribution by businesses and local governments. Manufacturers and government ackwledged that many suppliers and consumers still opted for cheaper disposable face masks from Asia.

Re: France to lift travel restrictions on internal European borders on June 15

We are faced with a lot of competition" from countries with lower labor costs, said Thomas Delise, owner of Chanteclair, knitwear manufacturer behind mask Macron flashed during a school visit last month. In an interview with Associated Press at his factory souast of Paris, he called for tre barriers to large imports, and coordination within Europe to buy Europe-me masks.

Guillaume Gibault, founder of trendy underwear brand Le Slip Francais ( French Brief), sees slump as a marketing and distribution problem. washable, specially engineered masks produced by his company and ors saw a very strong and immediate demand before excess accessories piled up in warehouses and factories. t everyone necessarily knew about what was available around m, and public didn't necessarily kw where or what to buy, he told French public rio service RFI.

Some textile companies complained that French government was slow to validate ir masks as effective in filtering out small particles, which slowed ir ability to get to market before people were allowed to start emerging from ir homes and needed masks in stores or on public transportation. A group of industry representatives got time with two junior government ministers this week to discuss surplus masks, as well as broer concerns about health of fashion, textiles and luxury goods makers amid ecomic fallout of pandemic and in long term.

After meeting, ministers pledged government's help to spre word to distributors, local governments and or potential customers about environmental and employment benefits of French masks and finding buyers at home and abro for surplus stock. Agnes Pannier-Runacher, state secretary to France's ecomy minister, told French brocaster RTL that government's objective is to convince large buyers to switch from single-use masks to reusable washable textile masks. Gibault and French Textile Industry Union President Yves Dubief agreed to le mission.

In a few weeks, French textile industry has mand to mobilize and redirect its productive apparatus on our territory in order to provide French durable textile masks with guaranteed filtration in sufficient quantities," Pannier-Runacher said. "This impressive effort is to be commended. It must w be long-term and be given support." French Textile Industry Union was first to sound alarm in early June on this problem of surplus.

Re: France has millions of unsold face masks after virus crisis

demand was such that one h anticipated such a brutal halt. But in textile industry, once launched, production does t stop with a snap of fingers, Dubief told French magazine Challenges. Some French companies were disgruntled because it was French government that urged many of m to get into mask-making and to increase capacity so country would produce 5 million masks a day that could be sold or given to general public, local governments and corporations by mid-May.

mask surplus is especially painful because France was so short of any kind of masks early in pandemic that some nursing homes and medical staff h face protection at all. Those mask shorts are central to several lawsuits against government of a country that has seen nearly 30,000 virus deaths.

Re: France allows access to ex-president Mitterrand's archives on Rwanda gecide

French government said this week that part of joint industry-government mission will be to help cloth mask-makers just production capacities to collective needs in masks over next few months. At his textile factory, Delise said: "We don't kw how pandemic will evolve. We don't kw which instructions government will give, we don't kw what kind of equipment professionals will want. So today, yes, we have a surplus stock of 600,000 masks and it obviously has an impact on my company.

Re: France's coronavirus recovery plan includes $51 billion ecomic stimulus pack