Oeko-Tex participates at Intertextile Shanghai

　　Testex, an official partner institute of the Oeko-Tex Association in China, participated in the recently concluded, Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics trade show.

　　Over 3,500 international and national exhibitors took part in the autumn trade fair this year and they presented their new products in the 170,000 square metres exhibition area.

　　Together with 16 selected regional companies, experts from the Chinese OekoTex representative offices were available to provide the trade fair visitors with expert information on all questions relating to Oeko-Tex certification.

　　Apart from a focus on the new MySTeP database for central administration of supply chains with regards to sustainability, the Testex pavilion also focussed on STeP by Oeko-Tex certification for sustainable production facilities in particular.

　　Oeko-Tex says with STeP by Oeko-Tex, brands, retailers and manufacturers in the textile chain have the opportunity to communicate their performance relating to fair working conditions and use of environmentally friendly production processes in a transparent, credible and understandable way.

　　During a event attended by around 120 people, Oeko-Tex general secretary, Jean-Pierre Haug, awarded three Chinese companies the STeP certificate for successfully implementing sustainable production conditions.

　　One of them is Hebei Ruichun Textile which manufactures towels for the domestic and export market and which, in addition to the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 and STeP certification, has also established an ISO-9001-compliant quality management system.

　　The second, Taizhou Jitai is a member of the China Wool Textile Industry Association and is licensed by the International Wool Secretariat (IWS) to use the Woolmark symbol on the suits they manufacture.

　　The third, Quanzhou Suntex Garments is a small-medium export company which specialises in production of underwear, boxer shorts, pyjamas, baby linen and swimwear.

　　Since the summer of this year, Oeko-Tex has also offered the new online database MySTeP as an enhancement to STeP certification of individual production operations.

　　According to Oeko-Tex, MySTeP enables registered companies to analyse and compare the sustainability of their entire supply chain using the relevant key performance indicators (KPI).

　　“The new database platform can be used by all companies in the textile sector, regardless of whether they have Oeko-Tex certification,”it informs. (AR)