Silk Entrepreneurial Paths: Mulberries are Planted and Shelves are Stacked for European Luxury Production

The bee Maya is not the most diligent insect in the world; the silkworm weaves kilometers of silk thread from which a supple fabric is created, whose beauty shines in the creations of the most renowned global fashion brands. To produce one kilogram of silk, nearly 2,500 silkworms are needed, which is equivalent to one kilogram of silkworm cocoons, and one silkworm produces one and a half kilometers of silk thread. For millennia, the elite have dressed in silk and slept on it; it was a favored fabric of the Far East even five thousand years before Christ, valued like gold, and was worn by Chinese emperors as well as kings who purchased it from caravans on the Silk Road.

Silk thread is eight times finer than human hair, which is why silk production is one of the most expensive in general. Silk accounts for only 0.17 percent of global fabric production, but it is very important in the luxury world, and its market value in 2020 was $15.6 billion, expected to reach $34 billion by 2026.

Traditional and Innovative Approach

The leading global producer is China, with 146,000 tons of raw silk produced in 2021 (about 80 percent of global production), followed by India with 28,708 tons in the same year. The global silk thread market was expected to achieve an annual growth rate of 5.5 percent from 2021 to 2026, but China faced a series of difficulties during the coronavirus pandemic: rising cocoon prices, a shortage of skilled labor, supply chain disruptions…

In addition, due to rising costs, many Chinese farmers have abandoned sericulture (the cultivation of silkworms), despite attempts to control costs. The problems faced by the Chinese silk industry have bypassed India, where silk production growth exceeded 10 percent two years before the pandemic. The Indian program known as ‘Silk Samagra’, designed by local producers to improve the quality and productivity of national silk to reduce the import of raw silk, has proven successful.

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The European Union has also entered the global silk story, as it does not favor Chinese dominance on the ‘new Silk Road’. The EU has decided to play a strong role in the global silk market by utilizing innovative ecological technologies for silkworm cultivation and silk production, while also investing in traditional sericulture. The European innovative approach to silk production is based on a model of circular, sustainable economy. However, textile manufacturers in the EU face difficulties in transitioning to the use of renewable materials. Due to their prices, it is challenging for them to follow the EU’s new strategy for sustainable and circular textiles, which requires reshaping the production model towards sustainable, biodegradable products that can be recycled, and when no longer needed, must not be burned or disposed of in landfills.

Vertical Farms

The new strategy has spurred the establishment of companies like the innovative Bio Lopyanko in Bulgaria, which has developed technology for producing innovative natural silk fiber – Sesi. The company’s owner, Dessislava Dimitrova, is developing a vertical automated farm for silkworms, SiFARM, to supply the textile industry with silk. This technology is based on vertical automated silkworm cultivation, and the main advantages of the new system are access to a circular economy and year-round production with an increase in silkworm cocoon production capacity by more than 80 percent, as well as a reduced environmental footprint compared to the traditional seasonal cultivation process.

The Sesi project minimally pollutes the environment and utilizes resources by applying a circular business model that allows wastewater containing valuable organic compounds to be used as a source of new natural raw materials or high-value-added products. The resulting new material is a sustainable and functional silk fiber with improved properties at an affordable price for the EU textile industry. The Sesi project, through the application of innovative technologies, will significantly contribute to a healthy lifestyle and environmental care, as well as the transformation of the entire textile industry, and this innovation will ensure the EU’s independence from silk imports and make it significantly more competitive in the international market.

Protection of Cultural Heritage

What the EU is doing today to encourage silk production is what Maria Theresa, the Austrian empress, did in the 18th century, promoting sericulture – the cultivation of silkworms, and sericulture – the opening of silk factories in southern Croatia. Thus, Croatia also has its ‘Silk Road’. Sericulture was practiced by cocoon growers, while sericulture was practiced by silk producers. To this day, this tradition has been preserved only in Konavle, and last year the Ministry of Culture and Media placed the traditional craft of sericulture and silk production on the eastern coast and hinterland of the Adriatic under preventive protection until the cultural property is determined.

– Besides allowing us to maintain and popularize the craft of silk production in Konavle, we believe that the protection of this property will encourage research so that the silk story can finally unfold. Although most believe that silk production existed only in Konavle, silk was present in a larger part of the Adriatic coast and hinterland, but not everywhere at the same time and not always. The survival of silk in the Adriatic is indeed a significant and important topic that we hope to finally address – writes in her blog Antonia Rusković Radonić, director of the Museum and Galleries of Konavle.

Evidence in Bukovac’s Autobiography

Thirty households, according to her, are currently engaged in silkworm cultivation in Konavle.

– Since 1782, every Croatian municipality was supposed to have mulberry plantations, for which the government distributed seedlings. Sericulture in Croatia was at its peak then, and silk was entirely exported from Croatia. Sericulture was organized so that eggs for hatching were provided by the state along with basic instructions. After the feeding cycle of the silkworms was completed, the cocoons would be handed over for purchase. Households that raised silkworms for cocoons did not necessarily use silk for their own needs. Sericulture was separate from sericulture, and such silk cultivation lasted until the beginning of the 20th century, with its greatest flourishing in the mid-19th century. At that time, diseases of silkworms ravaged the areas of France and Italy, so cocoons from our area became the main Lombard raw material in the production of silk textiles – notes Rusković Radonić.

According to her, there is no record of cultivation for purchase in Konavle in the 19th century; at that time, silk was produced by girls from all households for clothing.

– The only recorded data on the sale of cocoons, or on the cultivation of silkworms for commercial purposes, can be found in the autobiography of Vlahe Bukovca ‘My Life’, in which he describes how his father raised silkworms in the Šipun cave in Cavtat to earn some money – emphasizes Rusković Radonić.

Both Cocoons and Yarn

She emphasizes that the relationship with silk in Konavle is different from the rest of Croatia – Konavle sericulture is also sericulture. The same people who produce cocoons also produce silk yarn. The cycles occur once or twice a year, and more types of threads were produced: for embroidery, for weaving, as well as those for decorations, tassels, and gaits. Already prepared threads were dyed for domestic needs, and then they were embroidered, woven, and decorated. Silk thread was also used for sewing. A portion of uncolored thread was kept in chests for household needs, for tying the umbilical cord of newborns and binding the arms and legs of the deceased during burial.

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– Through the Konavle silk production, a significant intangible heritage is woven in the form of beliefs, customary and apotropaic, which we do not record in commercial sericulture. Therefore, the Konavle story about silk is likely much older than the one the state has promoted since the late 18th century. Today, for the sake of preserving the craft, sericulture is still alive in Konavle, as is sericulture. Silkworms are raised out of love for tradition, for educational purposes, and for presentation needs. From the produced silk, tassels for clothing are made, textiles are restored, and it is also used for weaving – lists Rusković Radonić.

The Day of Deepest Sleep

According to her, silk thread is obtained from cocoons or silkworm cocoons, which the silkworms begin to weave after several weeks of feeding on mulberry leaves. This also marks the end of their existence in the form of caterpillars. The metamorphosis into a butterfly thus takes place in a safe and protected place within the silk cocoon. An average silkworm in the process of making a cocoon weaves about 1,500 meters of silk thread of varying quality, and the cocoon is formed by gluing the silk filament with sericin in the shape of the number eight. The color of the glue also determines the color of the cocoon, which in Konavle varies from shades of yellow to white. Weaving lasts forty-eight hours, and after twelve hours, the caterpillar is completely enclosed within the cocoon and is no longer visible to the observer. It remains enclosed in the cocoon for fifteen to seventeen days, and from the eighth day, it sheds all the organs of the caterpillar and becomes a pupa or chrysalis.

– The eighth day was called the day of deepest sleep by the Konavle people, and then the cocoons that they wanted to leave unchewed were placed in the sun so that the heat would prevent the development of butterflies. From such cocoons, an uninterrupted, and thus the highest quality thread was obtained – explains Rusković Radonić, adding that the Konavle people always left part of the cocoons for mating butterflies, thus ensuring seeds for the next cycle of silkworm cultivation.