Silk Industry Is Also Experiencing Increasingly Fierce Market Competition

"The world silk sees China, and the Chinese silk sees Hangzhou". As one of the "six major silk capitals" in China, Hangzhou occupies a special position in Zhejiang's silk industry. Taking the opportunity of the "2013 China International Silk Expo and China International Women's Wear Expo" held in Hangzhou a few days ago, our reporter interviewed Fei Jianming, president of the Hangzhou Silk Industry Association. This senior expert in the industry told the reporter that our series of reports on "Inquiring about Zhejiang Silk" had caused a lot of repercussions in Hangzhou silk circle, and also made him have something to say.

Silk is a product, but also a culture

Reporter: Silk has always been Hangzhou's golden card, but the silk industry is also experiencing increasingly fierce market competition. What is the status of Hangzhou's silk industry in the world at present?

Fei Jianming: In the past decade, China's import and export trade of real silk commodities has accounted for 80% of the world's silk trade, while Zhejiang accounts for about 40%, and Hangzhou accounts for more than 25%; Over the years, Hangzhou's silk enterprises have ranked among the real silk commodity exports, real silk embryo silk exports, and real silk clothing First place in China for export; There are thousands of silk enterprises in Hangzhou, the most competitive top ten Chinese silk enterprises in Hangzhou, and the most Chinese silk commodity brands in Hangzhou. Hangzhou's domestic trade in real silk goods accounts for more than 30%.

Reporter: We all admit that it is not enough to have a market share for the silk product. What do you think of the competitive advantage of Hangzhou silk?

Fei Jianming: Silk is a special product with dual attributes of commodity and culture. To measure the competitiveness of Hangzhou silk, we should look at it from this perspective. I think Hangzhou silk has three advantages. First, Hangzhou has a profound silk culture that has been recognized internationally; Second, Hangzhou has formed a complete silk industry chain, from Chun'an's high-quality silkworm base, Yuhang's "China Silk Weaving Base", to Tonglu's "Silk Knitting Regional Economy", Xiaoshan and Xiasha's printing and dyeing bases, as well as Hangzhou's strong design team and clothing production and marketing capabilities, forming an independent and cooperative regional industry chain; Third, the main body of market competition is diversified, and state-owned, private and foreign capital dance together, with strong market vitality.

Where does innovation vitality come from

Reporter: Compared with emerging industries, traditional industries are also facing the pressure of innovation, especially revolutionary innovation. Where does the innovative vitality of Hangzhou silk come from?

Fei Jianming: Hangzhou's silk innovation first has cultural advantages. At present, Hangzhou has a number of silk museums and special exhibition halls, as well as world-class and national intangible cultural heritage and inheritors. All these will help us to tap the cultural value of the silk industry and improve the added value of products. At the same time, Hangzhou silk closely follows the fashion. On the basis of releasing the research on Chinese silk fashion trends for six consecutive years, this year we conducted the research and release of silk fashion trends. Our goal is to create the most professional and authoritative Chinese silk fashion trends in China. We have also established the China Hangzhou Italy Como Silk Promotion Alliance and have carried out fruitful cooperation.

There is also scientific and technological innovation. Most of Hangzhou's large-scale silk enterprises have applied for approval as high-tech enterprises. Now some foreign luxury brands have come to Hangzhou to seek silk enterprises for OEM processing. Of course, Hangzhou silk enterprises are also vigorously implementing the brand strategy in recent years, and already have a large number of well-known trademarks in China.

Three major problems need to be solved urgently

Reporter: In your opinion, what are the problems that need to be solved in the development of Hangzhou silk?

Fei Jianming: I think the first is the persistence and transfer of the real industry. Hangzhou silk enterprises have already faced the huge pressure of difficult recruitment and high labor costs, so they must take precautions and think about solving the persistence and transfer of the real industry. First of all, Hangzhou has the soil and environment suitable for the development of the silk industry and is the hub of the world's silk trade; Secondly, the production and manufacturing should be timely transferred to areas with lower costs, while the design and marketing should be kept in Hangzhou, so as to achieve the persistence of the real industry by means of transformation.

The second is the revolution of production mode and innovation of marketing mode. In my opinion, within ten years, we may no longer have sericulturists and silk reelers. The only solution is the revolution of the mode of production. It has transformed the mulberry planting and silkworm rearing method that has been passed down for thousands of years into a workshop rearing method, and has evolved from manual and automatic silk reeling to full intelligent silk reeling. We will truly liberate the productive forces with a revolution that completely changes tradition. Silk enterprises in Hangzhou began to mainly engage in foreign trade. In the past decade, they have set foot in the domestic market, but in the past decade, online marketing has changed the world. The marketing model of Hangzhou Silk has obviously not kept up with this change. Silk enterprises that can achieve most of their sales online are still rare, and even many enterprises have not yet "reached the net". Only the innovation of marketing model can ensure that Hangzhou Silk will rise to the forefront.

The third is the high-end and civilian silk goods. The debate about these two views is common in the press. In fact, it is a false proposition, just like the question of whether the clothing industry should only be Versace or Uniqlo. An industry has both high-end brands and affordable brands, which is the king's way, brand positioning for different consumer groups, and the embodiment of enterprises' differentiated marketing strategies. However, if the "Silk Nobility Theory" is sung too much, it will also indirectly raise the cocoon price and silk price, so as to affect the market law of "price is determined by supply and demand". Therefore, the silk enterprises in Hangzhou should only find their own brand positioning, and stop the pointless thinking about high-end or civilian.