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Fei Jianming: Spread of COVID-19, Five Major Judgments to Promote the World's Silk Interactive and Interconnected, Work Together and Overcome Difficulties

Time:2020-04-09 Source:ISU Secretariat

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Mr. Fei Jianming

honorary secretary-general of ISU

Honorary president of Hangzhou Oriental Silk Culture and Brand Research Center


International Silk Union launched the research of “Impact of COVID-19 on World Silk Industry and Consumer Market Trends”, it's the first time in international silk industry, and it will certainly beneficial to the interaction, interconnection, collaboration, and overcome difficulties.

Three months after the COVID-19 raged in China, it has controlled and slowly calming down. But the epidemic has begun to spread around the world, and Japan, South Korea, Italy, Iran, France, Spain, and the United States have fallen. The COVID-19 is unavoidable in the world. Almost none of the world's major producing and consuming countries are spared. In the past two weeks, US stock has plunged, and the European stock has also suffered a severe setback. The crisis in the world economy will surely far exceed the financial crisis in 1997 and 2008. Therefore, my colleagues in the silk industry must take precautions and be fully prepared.

My basic judgments and suggestions are as follows:

1. Affected by the spread of COVID-19, the demand and sales of world silk products will decline substantially in 2020. The  main reasons are production standstill, industrial chain disruption, consumption drop, and weak customer willingness to place orders, etc. Whenever a major disaster has passed, there are two types of industries that recover fastest. One is national key projects. Often, one project creates more GDP than a small industry. Another is the industry related to the national economy and people's livelihood. An indispensable commodity in people's lives. However, silk is not listed, so the recovery process will be slow.

2. Most Chinese silk enterprises have begun to resume production, but they should keep in mind to set production based on sales. If the company has the orders in hand, it should be quickly produce and deliver. Notes that we must not blindly produce, silk products have high value and large capital consumption. A large amount of inventory may cause overwhelmed by the flow of funds, not the epidemic.

3. Silk companies can choose to partially switch production to maintain cash flow. Some silk clothing companies in China have switched to producing masks and protective clothing. This is a very good way of survival and can also contribute to the conquest of the epidemic. As the epidemic spreads globally, with the approval of the government for production, qualified masks and protective clothing will be the commodities exported by foreign trade this year, and silk companies can do a lot.

4. Silk companies urgently need to change their marketing methods. Silk companies generally rely on offline sales, and few companies have online sales exceeding offline sales. Therefore, silk companies must take this crisis and make a big determination to make a fundamental change. This is not only the way to survive in a crisis, but also the only way for traditional industries to transition to modern industries.

5. Silk enterprises should control the cost strictly than ever before. In difficult times, enterprises must reduce all unnecessary expenses, strictly control the purchase price of raw materials, strictly control the quality, reduce quality costs, and control the total wages of enterprises. Increase income and decrease expenditure, living within the means, every penny you save may help your company persist to the spring.

We should make the worst assessment, try the greatest efforts, and strive for the best results under the impact of COVID-19 on world silk industry and consumer market trends. Come on!