1 BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF THE CEN/TC

Transcription

1 Page 2 1 BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF THE CEN/TC 1.1 Description of the Business Environment The following political, economic, technical, regulatory, legal, societal and/or international dynamics describe the business environment of the industry sector, products, materials, disciplines or practices related to the scope of this CEN/TC, and they may significantly influence how the relevant standards development processes are conducted and the content of the resulting standards: General information regarding the sector and its products Feather and down are used world wide as filling material for products such as: - quilts (duvets, comforters, etc.); - pillows; - sleeping bags; - furniture cushions; - garments; - fancy feathers (for the fashion industry); - feathers for badminton shuttle-cocks; - feather meal; - in building insulating materials. The unsurpassed warmth to weight ratio of feathers and down ( warmth without weight ) make it an excellent filling material for most of these products. Feathers and down compete in the market with other types of filling material, mainly synthetic fibres, wool and other types of animal hair. The finished products are mainly combining 100% cotton fabric as the primary cover with feather/down fillings, resulting in 100% natural end-products. Feathers and down are basically by-products from the meat industry. Feathers and down are collected from the slaughter-houses for ducks and geese, then processed, washed and used as filling material, in other words a renewable, natural resource. Interested parties in the standardisation process Interested parties in the standardisation process are industries at national and international level, both processors of feathers and down and users of the filling material for the making of filled products. Furthermore public authorities, institutes, laboratories, consumer representative and other non-governmental organisations. All of them are interested in having a set of standards that establish a common terminology for the sector, describe the tests that define the characteristics of the material and lay down the requirements to be met. Type and size of companies The European Industry mainly consists of small and medium sized companies many of them privately owned and with a workforce ranging from to about 250 people.

2 Page Quantitative Indicators of the Business Environment The following list of quantitative indicators describes the business environment in order to provide adequate information to support actions of the CEN /TC: In 2004 EU 25 imports from non-eu countries amounted to: Raw Feathers 7,922 tons equal to Euro 20,7 mill. Finished Feathers 7,203 tons equal to Euro 28,6 mill. and the internal trade between the 25 EU countries amounted to: Raw Feathers 8,102 tons equal to Euro 30,2 mill. Finished Feathers 9,447 tons equal to Euro 46,4 mill. It is estimated that of the total trade above, bedding articles account for 80 %. In addition to these figures imports of feathers and down in filled products must be added to get a better estimate of the total EU market for feathers and down. The external EU 25 import of articles of bedding filled with feather and down were in 2004: 31,620 tons equal to Euro 151,2 mill. About half the tonnage or about 16,000 tons is estimated to represent the feather and down filling. The Eurostat Prodcom statistics (year 2004), below, show the imports, exports and value of domestic market for Articles of Bedding filled with feather and down for each of the 25 EU countries. It is estimated that the EU 25 countries plus Switzerland, Norway and Iceland accounts for about 30 % of the world trade in feathers and down. Feathers and down are recyclable and can be used as fertilizer and for compost.

3 IMPORT Page 4 Year 2004 Prod Foreign trade/domestic Market value Articles of bedding filled with feather and down 1000 Euro BE/ LU DK DE GR ES FR IR IT NL AU PT FI SE GB EU 15 Intra EU Extra EU Total Intra EU Extra EU Total minus IMPORT Intra EU Extra EU N/A N/A Total N/A N/A Sold Production As reported Estimate Total Domestic Market value IMPORT Intra EU 15 Extra EU Other EU Countries 1000 Euro MT EE LV LT PL CZ SK HU SI CY Total Total Intra EU 15 Extra EU Total minus IMPORT Intra EU 15 Extra EU Total Sold Production As reported Estimate Total Domestic Market value

4 Page 5 2 BENEFITS EXPECTED FROM THE WORK OF THE CEN/TC To provide product consistency and harmonization that meets the following European consumer expectations in the field of: - Terminology: It is necessary to have common terms to make standards understandable to trade, technicians and consumers. - Test methods: Common test method and sampling procedure are necessary to check the relevant characteristics of raw material and finished products and to fulfil the needs of the commercial trade within and outside European Countries. - Performance specifications of finished products: The need to guarantee the performance levels of the finished products (such as bedding articles, clothing, sleeping bags and cushions) draws the attention of the interested parties to have specific standards on these matters. - Hygiene and cleanliness: Feather and down for use as filling material have to ensure a high level of hygienic conditions in conformity with the provisions of art. 100 A of the Treaty as asked for by the Consumer Policies Service of the EC Commission. The standards are the basis of the verifying by Industry of the degree efficiency of processing. For the specific need the following aspects have been considered (moisture content, oxygen index number, oil and fat content, turbidity, water-soluble chlorides, microbiological state, hygiene and cleanliness requirements). - Composition labelling: Fillings of feather and down have not been covered by national standards dealing with denomination and composition in all CEN countries. Where standards exist they often differ from each other. This inevitably presented an obstacle to the market or could lead the final consumer to incorrect interpretation. To obtain an unambiguous labelling the following items had been worked up: - denominations of the components of the plumage and of the fowl species; - information to be stated on labels and in commercial documents; - assessment of whether test results indicate conformity to the labelling based upon a stipulated tolerance. 3 PARTICIPATION IN THE CEN/TC All the CEN national members are entitled to nominate delegates to CEN Technical Committees and experts to Working Groups, ensuring a balance of all interested parties. Participation as observers of recognized European or international organizations is also possible under certain conditions. To participate in the activities of this CEN/TC, please contact the national standards organization in your country.

5 Page 6 4 OBJECTIVES OF THE CEN/TC AND STRATEGIES FOR THEIR ACHIEVEMENT 4.1 Defined objectives of the CEN/TC The essential tasks of the future of CEN/TC 222-Secretariat are - to maintain the set of standards for "feather and down as filling material for any article, as well as finished articles filled with feather and down" to meet market needs; - to review the work programme regularly, in order to be relevant to the changing needs of the market; - to organize the exchange of experience with the EN standards existing in Europe; - to ensure the latest state-of-the-art in the standards; - if necessary, to initiate standardization of new projects. 4.2 Identified strategies to achieve the CEN/TCs defined objectives CEN/TC 222 will employ the following strategies to meet defined objectives: 1. To achieve the objectives stated above, CEN/TC 222 decided to replace the existing Working Groups by 3 Task Groups to deal with different aspects of standardization activity: Task Group 1 "Cleanliness" to deal with standards relating to hygiene and cleanliness; Task Group 2 "Down Proofness" to deal with standards relating to down proof properties of fabrics encasing down and feather fillings; Task Group 3 "Down Tolerances" to deal with standards relating to composition labelling and performance test methods. 2. Continue using a single language for meetings to obviate problems and expense of organizing interpreters/translation; 3. Setting of realistic target dates; 4. Endeavour to meet target dates associated with each project; 5. Setting of categories of priority for the work programme; 6. Contribute in solving of political or technical problems; 7. Continue to promote the distribution of electronical documents using Livelink; 8. Continue liaison with the following technical committees and associations: CEN/TC 248 "Textiles", CEN/TC 136/WG 11 "Sleeping bags", European Down and Feather Association (EDFA).

6 5 FACTORS AFFECTING COMPLETION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CEN/TC WORK PROGRAMME Page 7 Specific facts or circumstances that have in the past and may still in future affect completion of the work programme: Contribution of experts/limited availability of expertise: Since the experts work in standardization on a voluntary level, only a limited number of experts are able or willing to devote their time to standardization work, the contribution from experts is not always made available as expected. Balance of Task Groups Due to the individual work situation it might be possible that not all task groups have a perfect balance depending on the assigned requirement. New participants are welcomed. Learning curve This TC was reorganized in March It might be possible that in time some Convenors or experts have to leave the TC or the task groups due to their individual work situations, to be replaced by others, who themselves need a learning curve. Such matters might influence the work negatively.