CELC changes name to Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp

The European Confederation for Flax and Hemp (CELC, Paris, France), reported to be the only European agro-industrial organization that serves as a global reference, has unveiled its new visual identity and name, the Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp. 

According to the organization, the new name reflects a newly restructured European industry which brings together the entire value chain around a common goal: To make European Flax-Linen and Hemp the preferred sustainable premium fibers worldwide for fashion, technical textiles and natural fiber composite applications. 

The Alliance’s future development pathway will focus on three distinct strategic pillars.

• Enhancing its work in publishing structured, reliable economic data and information on a regular basis, in order to be able to continuously deploy a set of specific decision-making support tools.
• Transforming the Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp into an innovative and sustainable international reference which continuously improves its environmental footprint through two essential elements: traceability and life cycle analysis (LCA).
• Guaranteeing quality and better describing the quality of its fibers by using technological innovations to create a reference for describing long fibers. A description of European flax fibers through optical imaging will soon complement the organoleptic method.

“Europe is the top global producer of flax fiber,” Bart Depourcq, president, Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp, says. “In an international context of growth and reindustrialization, flax, which accounts for just 0.4% of global textile fibers, is a globalized fiber with remarkable technical and environmental properties. At the same time, the European textile hemp industry is organizing itself to boost growth. Today, the European Flax-Linen and Hemp ecosystem thus embodies an innovative and sustainable European textile dynamic that meets the needs of consumers and brands.”