Valencian company Magtech managed to grow a variety of cotton without soil and with more than 70% water savings, This project, unique in Europe, will be produced from the highest quality fibers, which will enable the production of more sustainable and higher quality clothing for high luxury brands. Currently, cotton clothing manufacturing, colossal Water Consumption, both for the production of clothing and for the cultivation of this plant, which has a very high water density.
David René, the company’s president, told Efe: The “obsession” is not using potable water to grow cotton without soilA pioneering and revolutionary technique they developed to obtain “the best cotton fiber on the planet” is called hydroponics. Gossypium barbadense.
Fashion: an agricultural industry
René assures that the textile fiber industry moves 150 billion Euros a year and that 25% of the clothes produced are supplied with natural fibers from plants such as cotton, linen or bamboo, or leather such as leather, silk, or wool and synthetic fibers (polyester). .
«The fashion is agricultural because the soil grows cotton, flax, esparto grass or bamboo», reflects René, who has been working in the clothing industry for over ten years and lived in Tunisia for two years and in Bangladesh for four years, where he noticed the problems and challenges facing the industry.
“We applied to the Supreme Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). See if cotton can be grown without soil (soilless farming) “Just as it is done with tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce or strawberries in the Netherlands, the United States, Australia or Japan,” he says.
He states that To grow, plants “do not need soil, only water and the sixteen elements of the periodic table, which they absorb through their leaves or roots.” This is the roadmap developed by Magtech, which has already committed to the entire 2023 and 2024 harvest and will see the first clothing made from its cotton early next year.
“At Magtech we see ourselves as farmer 3.0, where biotechnology, biochemistry and engineering combine to add an innovative touch to agriculture and create a revolutionary project: we produce and market soilless-grown natural textile fibers for the fashion industry,” he argues.
High efficiency and 70% water saving
In 2021, they conducted the first tests, yielding yields 60 times higher than the annual field crop yield and saving significant amounts of water. The following year they improved the planting technique and This year they are carrying out their first proof of concept in two greenhouses in Paiporta (Valencia) with the support of the Cajamar Foundation and in Santomera (Murcia) with CSIC.
In 2024, they will operate two greenhouses with a total area of 3,125 square meters, which will integrate photovoltaic energy for self-consumption (it guarantees the challenge of “becoming energy independent” with computers, irrigation heads, artificial light and air conditioning).
«Cotton can be grown without soil, with just water, and the result is much softer fibres.Reduces softeners during the dyeing stage. At the first estimate, we managed to grow from 20-30 grams of cotton per plant per year in the field to over 1.2 kilos with 70% water saving. “This means that we multiply the annual yield per plant by 60,” he emphasized.
He also emphasizes that: rapid development of plants in greenhousesPlants that grow from 80 centimeters to over 3 meters in the field are reused because they can be harvested four times in two years with the same plants.
This is something that doesn’t happen in countries like the United States, China or Australia, where plants are destroyed during harvest, or in developing countries where farmers uproot plants and eventually rot, leading to CO2 emissions. atmosphere (estimated to account for 10% of these annual emissions).
“The best luxury cotton is grown only in the Caribbean, and when they tried to adapt it to other latitudes they were unsuccessful”, but they managed to replicate the perfect conditions in their greenhouses and obtain “the best variety of fiber”. ”
Spain, pending matter
Magtech received one of the awards at the local VLC Startup Awards organized by the Valencia City Council. It has agreements with luxury fashion companies in the UK, France, Switzerland and Denmark As suppliers in their supply chain, they begin exporting to Italy this week and are in contact with other countries in the United States (New York and California), France, Germany and Australia.
«We have a lot of acceptance outside of Spain. “But unfortunately, no Spanish company has shown real interest in the project,” says René, adding that national companies use lower quality cotton than their own and that they are currently “not willing to pay for it.”
The Valencian company, backed by the Lanzadera accelerator, has the support of the Cajamar Foundation and the Agro-Rural Innovation Center and, after closing this year with a turnover of 30,000 euros, is confident that it can exceed 100,000 euros next year.
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