TECH-STILES
Portugal's textile industry is being transformed through innovation, R&D, and digitalization.
A decade ago, the Portuguese textile sector was in crisis and increasingly under threat from low-cost producers such as China, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. Drastic steps were needed in order to re-invent and add new dynamism to the historic industry. Textiles are undoubtedly a strategic sector for the Portuguese economy, representing 10% of total industrial exports and more than 15% of employment in the manufacturing industry. It is largely based out of Porto and surrounding industrial areas. To this day, it is controlled largely by a number of family-held businesses whose experience in the sector often goes back more than 100 years.
Fast forward to today, and Portugal has a booming textile and fashion culture that leverages the country's industrial expertise. One of the most important entities that spearheaded the revitalization of the textile industry is the Portuguese Technological Center for the Textile and Clothing Industries (CITEVE). By the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, Portuguese textile manufacturers realized they could no longer rely on the domestic market for growth since the country's real GDP was shrinking rapidly. Textile companies were under tremendous pressure due to stagnating or non-existent local demand.
The solution was to find new export markets, from nearby European countries to the GCC, as far east as Japan and China, and westward to Latin America. But in order to make headway in these new and often challenging markets, Portuguese textile producers had to implement particularly efficient production processes by maximizing value addition and innovation. The General Manager of CITEVE, Eng. António Braz Costa, recognizes Portugal's need to leverage the country's strong scientific and technological ecosystem to help boost the overall competitiveness of the sector.
Portugal, thus, set out to compete in the global textile industry on the basis of scientific innovation. Renowned academic institutions such as University of Minho set up R&D laboratories and worked together with Portugal's leading textile companies to undertake a process of continual innovation utilizing the latest technological advances in materials and nanotechnology. This led to success at a number of companies such as A. Sampaio and Sons and the Latino Group, which now produce next-generation fibers to make tactical uniforms for police forces and the military. A growing number of Portuguese companies have exhibited their products at homeland security fairs such as Milipol in Paris and ISPO in Munich, the leading trade fair for sports professionals, and won awards for uniquely innovative products.
These high-added-value textiles utilize a wide variety of properties including ballistic protection, cut- and fire-resistant fibers, and anti-microbial functions, as well as the incorporation of the latest electronic sensors that can provide soldiers life-saving, real-time information on the battlefield, or work clothing that can protect workers operating in potentially hostile environments such as offshore oil and gas rigs. Much of the success of Portuguese textile companies producing tactical items for the military or police forces around the world was previously gained by developing fibers for performance sports such as mountaineering and skiing.
Another defining characteristic of Portugal's modern textile industry is a firm commitment to environmental sustainability. Portugal already has particularly stringent environmental regulations, but the new generation of Portuguese textile companies has set out to further reduce CO2 emissions, industrial waste, and effluent water. Sustainability is deeply ingrained in these companies' business models, and many work with recycled polyester, cotton, and organic materials such as cork. Some even go as far as utilizing plastic recovered from the bottom of the ocean by fishermen. Companies such as TINTEX Textiles even have dedicated sustainability managers to ensure the full traceability of materials throughout the supply chain and produce fabrics with the lowest possible environmental impact.
The revamping of the textile industry elevates the sophistication of the sector and gives Portugal growing reach to new export markets.
TECH-STILES
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Focus: Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries
Making an Impact
Established in 1996, the Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries (CPLP) is a mechanism geared at linking and sharing the experience of Lusophone countries. Besides Portugal, this includes Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
read articleFocus
Don’t Mind the Disruption
Having won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, Lisbon hosted the 2018 event. The relevance? Well, the contest began back in 1956 as a showcase not only of song, but of then-nascent live television broadcast technology. Today, Portugal is on the cutting edge of new technological developments.
read articleInterview
João Pedro Soeiro de Matos Fernandes , Minister , Environment and Energy Transition
The Ministry for the Environment and Energy Transition is focusing on decarbonizing the economy, valuing the territory and its habitats, and striving for a more circular use of the country's resources.
read articleInterview
António Braz Costa , General Manager, Portuguese Technological Centre for the Textile & Clothing Industries (CITEVE)
CITEVE has transformed the industry by promoting value addition, adopting the latest technologies, and ensuring the highest standards of environmental sustainability.
read articleFocus: New airport
Right Time to Seize Missed Opportunities
Portugal has seen its air traffic figures increase by as much as 80% in the last five years. As a result, its transportation infrastructure, and Lisbon's airport in particular, cannot cope with the rising numbers. A new airport project that will turn a military base into a commercial airport is now under discussion to bring much-needed relief to air traffic.
read articleInterview
Germano de Sousa , President, Grupo Germano de Sousa
Grupo Germano de Sousa's success can best be summed up by its understanding that science and medicine only really progress when technological development is combined with a deeper respect for human values and professional ethics.
read articleInterview
Isabel Capeloa Gil , Rector, Universidade Católica
Having pioneered the introduction of multiple subject areas to Portugal's tertiary education scene, Universidade Católica is aspiring to establish the country's first private medical school and introduce cutting-edge digital transformation.
read articleInterview
Carlos Guillén Gestoso , President, Escola Universitária de Ciências Empresariais, Saúde, Tecnologias e Engenharia & President, Atlantica University
Atlantica University differentiates through its company-university model and an MBA program in partnership with the University of California, Berkley, among other initiatives, to produce practical theoreticians.
read articleFocus: Public teaching staff
An Age-old Problem
Over a decade of austerity measures combined with an ageing population have seen the average age of the Portuguese public teaching staff progressively climb to one of the highest in the OECD. With frozen salaries, an extended retirement age, and precarious working conditions, today the sector faces one of its biggest challenge yet.
read articleInterview
Pedro Queiroz , General Manager, Federation of the Portuguese Agri-Food Industry (FIPA)
Portugal's economic recovery has seen its F&B sector emerge with annual turnovers of EUR16 billion, thanks to FIPA's undeterred focus on stable policies, excellent nutrition standards, and sustainability.
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