The Aracne thread weaves relationships among the international institutions working on silk
The International Sericulture Commission (ISC) is an intergovernmental organization, which is concerned with the development of sericulture and the silk industry in the world. It has 23 member countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, France, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kenya, Madagascar, Nepal, Romania, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe. Some of the new activities recently undertaken by the ISC are potentially of great interest to silk stakeholders in Europe. These include: the establishment of a technical committee for silk grading and standards; the study of silk sustainability standards based on Life Cycle Assessment; and collaboration with IWTO (International Wool Textile Organization) to advocate for natural fibres, including silk, in the transition to a circular economy. Twenty ISC delegates will visit Italy, France and Switzerland in the coming days. This delegation includes: senjor government officials from ISC member countries, associated with industry delegates, with a mixed composition of technocrats, bureaucrats, researchers, policy planners and ISC officials. The purpose of the visit is to understand the state of silk production in Europe by visiting the silk industry, and meeting with companies, private and government agencies, researchers, institutions, museums, etc. The spillover of the visit should be to establish useful collaborations in the academic and business areas, benefiting the global silk industrial sector. On the part of ISC, it is to understand the viewpoint of the European silk industry and to reorient and align ISC’s activities. In this context, the delegation asked to pay a visit to the Sericulture Laboratory of CREA, Centre for Agriculture and Environment, where they will be welcomed by the staff of researchers and technicians of this institution; they will be subsequently guided to visit the CREA’ historic silk collections at the Esapolis Museum. CREA’ s institutional mission and research activities will be explained to the delegates. A particular focus will be on the results of the ARACNE project and on the next ARACNE conference in Georgia (November 2025) to which the delegates and the member countries will be invited to participate.
Link: https://www.inserco.org/en/
Contact: silvia.cappellozza@crea.gov.it