Made in Italy - and China

Italian producers try to distinguish themselves from cheap competitors by aiming at the high end. Picture / Reuters

A grey plastic sculpture of a whale stretches across the floor of what was once one of Italy's finest wool factories.

"There used to be 300 to 400 workers here," said Mario Virla, whose father, mother, brother and sister were all wool weavers. "Now there's just that beached whale."

The Alfonso Pria weaving and dyeing workshop - now an arts centre - closed almost a decade ago under pressure from cheap foreign competitors.

Dozens of other textile factories along the river that runs through the northern Italian town of Biella have been left empty, the walls crumbling and the windows smashed.

Italy is still one of Europe's chief exporters of textiles and clothes. But its producers have been knocked over by an explosion of Chinese imports since the World Trade Organisation scrapped protective quotas on January 1.

European Commission data shows that sales of jerseys and cardigans from China to European Union members jumped 534 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year.

Woven linen imports from China were up 257 per cent and imports of men's trousers rose 412 per cent.

"The trend in the textiles and clothing sector is certainly not positive," said Paolo Zegna, head of Italy's textiles and clothing association.

"In the past months, imports have risen sharply and the average prices are falling. We are pressing the EU to use the safeguard clause and curb imports."

Under the WTO's "safeguard" clause, the EU could ask Beijing to limit exports if they cause serious market disruption.

The EU and the United States have launched probes into the increase in imports of certain textiles and clothes, but are keen to avoid an open trade war with China.

Italian producers have tried to distinguish themselves from Chinese competitors through high quality and original design, targeting the fashion-conscious wealthy who are willing to pay more for a "Made in Italy" tag.

Textile clusters such as Biella, the Tuscan town of Prato or silk-producing Como in northern Italy take pride in a tradition that reaches back to the Middle Ages. At Biella's wool museum, leather-bound stained manuscripts from the 13th century document its weaving sector in elaborate letters and lovingly detailed illustrations.

Striding through the factory-turned-arts centre and its beached whale, Virla recalls coming home from school to help at the family's loom.

He said even in the late 1960s, many families in Biella had a loom in their garage or basement, and walking through the streets you would hear their characteristic clack-clack sound as women and children worked while the men were at the factory.

"No one used earplugs, so the old weavers were usually quite deaf, like my father," said Virla, 57, a computer specialist. "You had to work long hours and really concentrate."

Much of the dirty, tough and tedious job of spinning, dyeing and weaving wool has been moved to low-wage countries, and even companies that bank on their Italian brandname are shifting production to cut costs.

Groups such as Marzotto, which owns Valentino and Hugo Boss, or Ratti, which makes printed silk scarves for luxury brands such as Gianfranco Ferre, are either selling their textiles units or using cheaper labour abroad.

Some manufacturers are even benefiting from the end of quotas, since it makes their raw materials cheaper.

In Prato, an old textiles cluster near Florence, more than 9000 mostly small workshops are trying to survive against the wave of Chinese products.

Their complex network of highly specialised firms, many family-owned, appears to have proven more resilient than Biella's larger factories and home-based labour.

"The immediate impact [of the end of textile quotas] was not that strong because we produce for a niche in the market," said Sergio Bigaglio, head of Lanificio Lineaquattro in Prato, which sells woollen and cotton fabrics for suits and dresses.

He said it was too early to gauge the economic effect of the end of quotas.

"But, of course, we have also lost clients who now buy in China because the prices are a lot lower," Bigaglio said

"And everyone in Prato is worried. The future is looking quite bleak."

- REUTERS