ollowing 10 years of continuous growth, the Portuguese textile and clothing industry seems to be coming to a full cycle. Internal and externally, the change is happening, and a new paradigm for the textile and fashion business is forming at a great speed, demanding our full attention, so that the threats may be turned into opportunities – and that these may fully availed by most of the sector’s companies.

The globalization phenomenon, which seemed to be halting due to the United States’ protectionist policies, is still running at full speed, and free trade agreements of European initiative are bountiful – Canada, Japan and Mercosur, among many others –, a political and commercial space that we are a part of, thus promoting a growing openness to commercial trade, and the exponential increase of international competition, unfolding the possibilities, unlike in any other period in the history of our sector, for us to find new markets and new clients.

On the other hand, new and powerful trends are shaping what the textile and fashion industry will become in the following years. Innovation – technology and creativity, essentially in the design – is joined by digitization, imposing new communication channels and exchange processes; and sustainability, in a broad sense that encompasses economic, environmental and social responsibility.

The modern consumer is well-informed and carries a great awareness, refusing the old paradigms that allowed for the success of fast fashion, at an enormous cost for less developed geographies. These paradigms are increasingly less accepted and far less tolerated.

If we combine values, technology and circular economy, we certainly face a diverse world, radically different and much more demanding than what we were used to. That is also the challenge that our textile and clothing industry is facing, where today’s solutions can no longer be relied upon to approach the problems that the future is already bringing.

It is important to underline, however, that the Portuguese textile and clothing industry is still showing an extraordinary resilience and ability to adapt to the most extreme challenges, remaining a structured, integrated and dynamic cluster, rising in the value chain, and presenting a constant growth of its productivity.

We are facing a particularly hard and challenging economic environment. We should not delude ourselves about the difficulties that the sector and the country might still face, in a logic of transformation and uncertainty. However, more than ever, it is vital to join efforts, look for consensus and convergence in the collective strategy that we must follow, and never go without the indispensable common sense to guarantee survival, consolidate the regeneration and gain the future.