FTPB - News

FTPB News n° 7 - 18 June 2007

At FTPB, we tend to have press trips going on in the spring and early summer, and then again in the autumn. This year is no different and three press trips in two separate industrial sectors have kept us busy, among other things, in the last couple of months.

From 8 to 11 May, a British journalist joined members of the German trade press for a tour of production facilities in the field of technical textiles in two regions of France — Lyons (in the South-East) and Lille (in the North). The trip was organised for Espace Textile and ClubTex — two trade organisations that support the sector in France — with the help of our colleagues at UBIFRANCE Paris.

As we all know, Europe’s textile industry has had to compete with cheap imports from mainland China in recent years, with sometimes devastating effects in certain industry segments and regions of the European Union. It is not all doom and gloom, however, and companies that specialise in high-tech fabrics are proving able to carry on trading and expanding, given the nature of their business.

France has the second-largest technical-textile industry in the EU behind Germany. As often, the leading trade shows in the industry are held in Germany, precisely. TECHTEXTIL 2007, the trade fair in Frankfurt am Main, took place between 12 & 14 June. British journalists were invited to meet French exhibitors on the French national pavilion at the fair (a pavilion organised by our parent-organisation, UBIFRANCE).

The third press trip is for FRIEND (a Paris-based organisation grouping seven of France’s metropolitan areas and aimed at promoting business links and inward investment), and it is in a different field altogether, i.e. biotechnology. FTPB will be sending three to four British journalists to three different regions of France (Lille again, Strasbourg in the East and Nice on the French Riviera), to see for themselves what the best of French biotech has to offer. The trip is scheduled for 4, 5 & 6 July.

Two other major projects have been keeping us occupied. The first one, which I have mentioned previously, has to do with the promotion of the island region of Corsica. In order to present FTPB’s services to our Corsican partners, I flew to Bastia (a port to the North of the island) on 2 May. Presentations were followed by meetings with locally based companies on 3 & 4 May. I took advantage of the opportunity to extend my stay a little, so that I had the whole of Saturday 5 May to walk around Bastia.

Undoubtedly, Bastia is an attractive city, boasting a picturesque old quarter that extends from the old port area (Vieux Port) all the way up to the citadel, built by the Genoese (who occupied the island for several centuries). At this point, a brief historical digression should resonate with FTPB News readers, since there is a direct connection with the UK’s history, here, which the vast majority of British citizens will be unaware of, but which virtually every Corsican will mention to the visiting Briton.

Corsican nationalist leader Filippo Antonio Pasquale di Paoli (1725-1807) led the Corsican national struggle against the Italian occupiers, who were eventually driven out of the island, but for a few coastal towns. In November 1755, Corsican independence was proclaimed and Pasquale Paoli presided over the enactment of a Corsican republican constitution.

The Genoese, however, had other ideas and proceeded to sell their rights to the possession of the island — as they saw it — to the French State, as part of the Treaty of Versailles (1768). Paoli opposed the move but was defeated by superior French military force (1769); he was subsequently forced into exile, and took refuge in England. Corsica became French, thus ensuring that Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was born…a French citizen.

As for Paoli, he returned to Corsica in the wake of the French Revolution of 1789, whereupon he attempted to get Corsica to secede from France (1793). Having failed, he offered sovereignty of his Anglo-Corsican Kingdom to the British Crown, but this plan came to nothing, so that he went into exile, for the second time. Once more, he found himself in England, where he was famous by then. He died in 1807, and a bust of Paoli was duly erected in Westminster Abbey. It is only in 1889 that his remains were returned to the village he came from, in Corsica.

So, in fact, and strangely enough to those unfamiliar with the story, Corsica very nearly became as British as Jersey and Guernsey are today, at this critical juncture in its history. Of course, Corsica, in 2007, is a very different place. The Corsican economy, nevertheless, apart from its highly developed tourism industry, remains dominated by small-scale businesses in the agri-foodstuffs sector, which encompasses the production of cured meats (charcuterie), various cheeses, a range of wines and a truly original chestnut-flavoured beer (Pietra). Indeed, in former times, chestnuts were the staple food for many of the inhabitants, isolated as they were in their remote mountain villages.

As readers can imagine, I made sure I tried all of these traditional products, if only out of a sense of professional duty — and with much pleasure, in fact. If a few words could describe Corsican traditional products, it is the fact that they are so distinct, to the point where they never fail to make a strong and lasting impression on the senses. The flavours are always potent and typical, as they encapsulate the very identity of this Mediterranean island and its proud people.

The second major project FTPB has been working on, in close partnership with the Trade Section of the French Embassy (Mission Economique), is the Semaine Française (or French Week), due to take place in November 2007, here in London. The British Week has been going strong for several years in Paris, so it is only fair London should have its French Week, which will give retailers and other distributors of French goods the opportunity to showcase The Best of French across the capital. You will hear more about this in due course.

I hope you will enjoy reading the June edition of FTPB News; the next edition of our bulletin will come out round mid-September. My colleagues and I at FTPB wish you a pleasant break over the summer, on the assumption that, like most people, you will be taking some time off in the coming months. And you might be well inspired and have chosen France (and Corsica) as your destination!

Philip Jolly, Managing Director, FTPB

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