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Persiskin, the Valencian project that converts the surplus of chaqui into textiles for clothing, footwear and bags

Valencia

Manufacture clothing, footwear, handbags and handbags using waste and surplus from persimmon production. This is what the company LaserFood has achieved, with a presence in the Science Park of the Universitat València. Its CEO, Jaime Sanfelix, says that they perceived that there was a problem of revaluation of the persimmon since more than 50% of the production of a tree was wasted.

Jaime Sanfelix, CEO of LaserFood: "Vegan leather was gaining more and more acceptance"

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For this reason, the company's technical team got down to work to find an alternative and valorize this waste. Therefore, they looked for different alternatives and decided that the best option was to use this product as a substitute for animal leather. "Vegan leather was becoming more and more accepted by customers around the world," he says. Thus, they managed to obtain a 100% natural substitute, while competing products.

PersiSKIN, the Valencian project that converts the surplus persimmon into textiles for clothing, footwear and bags

And they did it from their innovation laboratories at the Science Park of the University of Valencia. "Our technicians who are chemical developers began to look for alternatives for the manufacture of this new textile", he explains. The CEO assures that what was on the market were mixtures with little vegetable product. "They did not even reach 15%," he adds.

The CEO of LaserFood assures that they have managed to create a totally natural product, 100%. "Depending on the finish, it will have a reduction of that percentage, but never below 80% of the natural product," he explains. Thus, Jaime Sanfelix assures that the growth forecasts are high given that the market is very large. "According to a study of the textile sector, by the year 2025 there is talk of an annual turnover of 50 billion euros," he explains.

In this sense, he anticipates that the most important objective is to establish a new industry in the same production area of ​​the persimmon, which has the Ribera del Xúqer Denomination of Origin. "Our factory located in Alginet to provide a circular economy, to supply companies that already use this fabric but also to be able to create hundreds or thousands of industrial jobs," he adds.

The company, which is currently in the initial phase of presenting the product, has invested €500,000 in the product's patent and its development. In the coming months, “it is estimated that we will invest up to 2 million euros in the production phase that will begin in May of this year. In this second phase of production we will be able to open a first factory where the final fabric will be made and we will begin marketing it”, explains the CEO of Laserfood.