High-tech facility in Imabari from sericulture to processing of silk material in one place

 The "Setouchi Silk Factory", which can handle everything from sericulture to the production of materials using silk, has opened. We aim to revive the sericulture industry by reducing the workload during the production of eyebrows through mechanization and producing promising cosmetics and pharmaceutical materials.

The factory is a steel-framed one-story building with an area of ​​about 95 square meters. It is operated by United Silk (Matsuyama City), which manufactures and sells silk raw materials. The facility was renovated by renting a farm building of the social welfare corporation Kurushimakai (Imabari City). People with disabilities of the association are also responsible for taking out pupae from the eyebrows. The company aims to produce 1 ton of eyebrows annually, including the same type of sericulture equipment in Matsuyama City.

The centerpiece of the factory is the mass breeding system for silk moths. Until now, it was a burden on farmers to cut and feed a large amount of morus alba leaves, which are the food for silk moths, but at the factory, sausage-like feed containing morus alba was used to achieve significant labor savings. did. In addition, it is said that the optimum temperature control for breeding is possible.

The finished eyebrows are melted and then concentrated by centrifugation to become liquid or powdery materials, which are used as raw materials for foods and cosmetics. Since silk has the property of being familiar to the human body, demand is expected for surgical threads and artificial blood vessels.

Eggs, which are the raw material for sericulture, were purchased from Yawatahama City and were particular about being produced in the prefecture. The number of sericulture farmers in the prefecture exceeded 50,000 in the 1930s, but now it is nine. The factory also has a wish for the revival of the sericulture industry in the prefecture.