According to the Deputy Minister for Industry, France is no longer reliant on China for the production of face masks.

France will produce 100 million face masks (surgical and FFP2) per week by December and no longer relies on China, said Tuesday, August 25th the Deputy Minister for Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, on the CNews TV channel.

“We produce 50 million disposable masks per week,” the minister said, promising that the target of 60 million capacity for October will be met.

And “we will be at 100 million disposable, FFP2 and surgical masks by December,” she added. “We have therefore multiplied by 30 our production of face masks.”

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Enough masks, but the gloves are still an issue

“We are no longer dependent on China,” the minister added. France can now rely on its national production and on European production. “If China shuts down, we can cope,” she summarised.

“The point of difficulty today” is “the gloves.” The production of which depends on the supply of latex, the Minister noted.

Besides disposable masks, France has also developed its production of textile masks which are “cheaper” and “just as effective “, Agnès Pannier-Runacher emphasised.

The cost of using a washable and reusable textile mask is “less than 10 cents” and “many French people use them”, she stated.

The Deputy Minister for Industry reminded of the distribution of 50 million masks this summer “to the most financially vulnerable families”.

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Additional costs for businesses

Regarding businesses, she estimated that the additional cost of sanitary measures can be as much as 10% to 15%, which is “not marginal”. But “it is not up to the State to substitute for managers for these costs”, said Agnès Pannier-Runacher. She considers that “the market economy is also about paying the actual costs”.

Asked about the postponement of the announcement of the recovery plan by one week, Agnès Pannier-Runacher stressed that this plan is “already decided” and that it is “implemented in the industrial part”.

“There is nothing to hide, there is just the need to prepare the start of the school year,” she said, also citing “the start of the new business year”.