One in every five sweaters worldwide is produced in Dalang Town, Dongguan, Guangdong. This textile powerhouse, with over four decades of wool industry experience, hosted the 95th International Wool Textile Organization (IWTO) Congress on June 24. The message from the congress was clear: amid global trade barriers and shifting consumption patterns, the wool industry is seeking to redefine its position in the textile value chain through green transformation, digitalization, and unified standards.
Scale and Challenges
Dalang's wool supply chain generates annual transactions exceeding 72 billion yuan, with garment production surpassing 900 million pieces per year, exported to over 100 countries. This scale reflects China's status as the world's largest wool processing capacity holder—importing large volumes of raw wool and exporting finished products. However, the industry faces real headwinds: rising trade protectionism, stricter EU regulations on textile environmental footprints, and a one-sided perception among younger consumers about the environmental impact of animal husbandry are squeezing wool's market share.
Sun Ruizhe, President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, stated in his report that China's textile industry is providing 'certainty' to the global market by stabilizing supply and fostering collaborative innovation, offsetting some geopolitical uncertainties. For the wool sector, this means shifting from reactive compliance to proactive discourse building.
The Green Paper: Countering Data Bias and Policy Pressure
The congress's centerpiece was the global launch of the IWTO Wool Green Paper. This document is not a mere industry report but a critical tool for transformation. According to the launch briefing, only a few enterprises are currently involved in building the Green Paper's data, while the industry's pressing problem is that existing public data systematically exaggerates wool's negative environmental impacts. This has led the EU, when formulating eco-labels and carbon footprint rules for textiles, to disadvantage wool compared to synthetic fibers or cotton.
The Green Paper plans to customize carbon footprint accounting standards by production region and establish wool durability standards. This means future environmental claims for wool products will no longer rely on vague industry averages but on actual measured data from farm to garment. For buyers, this is both a compliance preparation and an opportunity to redefine product value—if data can prove wool's advantages in durability and biodegradability, it can command a premium in high-end markets.
Dalang Model: From OEM to Branding
Dalang's industrial upgrade path offers a reference for the global wool industry. Dongguan city officials stated at the congress that Dalang is transitioning from OEM to cultural empowerment and proprietary brands, focusing on intelligent weaving, green processes, and industrial platform construction. Specifically, Dalang has formed a complete ecosystem from raw material processing and design to trade and logistics, with its strength lying in cost and speed advantages from clustering.
But challenges remain. Most Dalang enterprises are small-to-medium-sized, and facing the EU's Supply Chain Due Diligence Act and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, compliance costs for individual firms are prohibitive. The solution proposed at the congress: build a unified traceability data system through industry organizations, and coordinate national associations to lobby for EU policy influence. This means future Dalang wool exporters may need to plug into a global carbon footprint database, or face market access barriers.
Youth Power and Narrative Reshaping
A noteworthy detail was the congress's dedicated session for the Wool Youth Program. Youth representative Jacques Ji emphasized that the platform aims to help newcomers cross geographical boundaries, build networks, and unite the supply chain. This reflects industry concerns about a talent gap—wool, as a traditional sector, struggles to attract young professionals competing with emerging industries.
Simultaneously, rehabilitating wool's public image is on the agenda. Thanawat Tiensin, Assistant Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, urged in a video message that the wool industry should not only showcase finished products but also tell the story of farming families caring for livestock and land. This narrative shift aims to counter the simplistic 'livestock=environmental damage' perception among urban youth. For brands, weaving the human and ecological value of the wool supply chain into marketing narratives could become a key differentiator.