Textile Projects
LUCA Project, in Memory of Luca, Dr. De Martini's Late Son
A first stage of the project was started in 2011 in cooperation with De Martini Textile Group in Biella to promote in Sierra Leone, with the assistance of UNIMAK, a revival of cotton production by:
Since up the civil war, Sierra Leone’s small quantities of raw cotton were either primitively processed into fabrics at family level or bought by foreign merchants below market price, as there was no transformation industry in the country.
The idea of the project was that the small/medium farmers, representing the great majority of the Sierra-Leonean agricultural structure, could be encouraged to increase their cotton production and to organize themselves in cooperatives, whereas the downstream processing activities and the sale of the semi-finished products would be run as a Social Enterprise.
The project went through three steps:
The cultivation tests, started in 2012, should continue in order to attain the yields and quality required to make the Social Enterprise profitable.
As soon as the cotton will have reached a sufficient quality level, it was also foreseen to start a second stage of the textile project consisting in installing a spinning and weaving mill to produce fabrics for the local market. Cotton fabrics are currently imported in Sierra Leone at high prices from abroad.
This project is suffering from a delay owing to the Ebola epidemic.
Updated on October 2014.
- Teaching the farmers improved cultivation practices
- Installing the initial part of the downstream processing of the raw cotton (cleaning and packaging into bales)
- Identifying some Italian Customers available to purchase the semi-finished products for the manufacture of tissues for cosmetic end use.
Since up the civil war, Sierra Leone’s small quantities of raw cotton were either primitively processed into fabrics at family level or bought by foreign merchants below market price, as there was no transformation industry in the country.
The idea of the project was that the small/medium farmers, representing the great majority of the Sierra-Leonean agricultural structure, could be encouraged to increase their cotton production and to organize themselves in cooperatives, whereas the downstream processing activities and the sale of the semi-finished products would be run as a Social Enterprise.
The project went through three steps:
- Program of Revival and Sensitization conducted at farmers’ level, including a survey of about 200 farmers
- Establishment of an Experimental Field in order to test the best cultivation practices for improving yields and quality of the cotton and teach the farmers accordingly
- Installation of a Conversion Center to clean the raw cotton and package it in bales for delivery to some Italian customers, ready to buy them for the manufacture of cosmetic tissues. The equipment for this Center was paid by a contribution of the BNL Foundation.
The cultivation tests, started in 2012, should continue in order to attain the yields and quality required to make the Social Enterprise profitable.
As soon as the cotton will have reached a sufficient quality level, it was also foreseen to start a second stage of the textile project consisting in installing a spinning and weaving mill to produce fabrics for the local market. Cotton fabrics are currently imported in Sierra Leone at high prices from abroad.
This project is suffering from a delay owing to the Ebola epidemic.
Updated on October 2014.