Samatoa, an eco textile company, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Samatoa is a social enterprise of textile (manufacturer of clothing in silk and other natural fibers) founded in Cambodia in 2003 on the three pillars of sustainable development : economic efficiency, social equity and protection of the environment.
Since the beginning in 2003, the Samatoa's founder values have remained the same: the customer satisfaction, the impeccable quality of the products combined with a sustainable, environmental and social respect. The heart of the Samatoa's expertise relies on its workshops in which the farmers, the spinners, the weavers, the tailors and the partners share daily the same ambitions.
One of the Samatoa's objective is to connect the luxury market to the poorest persons: by buying one luxury jacket, a consumer provides 2 months of working.
The main Lotus Farm is located in Battambang, around an amazing giant lake. Given the needs to produce lotus garments in quantity for high end clients, the company has created a second one in Siem Reap, near Phnom Krom. In this place, Samatoa now harvests 20 hectares of the Lotus Lake, employs 30 farmers, spinners and weavers.
The Lotus Farm aims to create 500 jobs in 5 years.
In order to share its expertise, come to visit our workshop and discover an exclusive discovery of a unique handmade process to create the most ecological textile: the lotus fabric.
A meaningful production
Lotus flower is the symbol of divine purity in many Asian cultures, appearing in the hands of the sacred Buddha. It was historically used to make robes for high-ranking Buddhist monks. The Lotus has played a major part in Asian folklore, and is a particularly important icon in the homes of many weavers.
The Harvest of Lotus Flowers Stems
The lotus fiber exclusively comes from the Sacred Lotus which provides the most soft, breathable and bright fiber. The farmers select the stems according to their level of maturity. They are picked by boat, 4 times per day, 1 ton per week. The lotus fields are entirely transplanted every three years to preserve the best quality. The first trade secret of the lotus fabric is to transform the fibers in thread conserving its full properties: as an aquatic plant, the lotus fibers have to be extracted and transformed in an aquatic middle.
After the harvest, the stems are brought to the factory where there are cleaned to take off the prickles and the impurities before the spinning.
The Spinning, a Crucial Step of the Process
The spinning is the stage which consists in transforming the lotus fiber in a thread.
After cleaning, spinners carefully cut around the stems and pull their extremities to extract the lotus fibers. Twelve layers of fiber must be superimposed and rolled with precaution and precision to produce a high quality thread. The second trade secret is in line with what is probably the most meticulous part of the process: to put the different pieces of thread together without visible junction and without any weakness. The thread has to be very regular. Without this attention, it will break during the weaving and decrease the quality of the fabric. One meter of lotus fabric needs 3000 meters of lotus fibers.
When the thread is finished, it is wound on to a skein winder and dried. One spinner produces 250 meters of thread per day. To produce one jacket, it needs 4 meters of fabric or 12000 meters of fiber, which means 2 months of work for a spinner. Because of its complexity, this process must be realized exclusively by hand.
And the lotus thread becomes fabric: the weaving
Before weaving, the yarn is twisted to increase its strength and then wounded around a skein few times. Then, the preparation of the loom takes 15 days. A 50 meters fabric roll is weaved in 2 months. This twisted thread is wound around reels placed on quills into a wooden shuttle which is send through the space formed by the yarns. The weaver switches the position of the pedals and repeat the same movement. One weaver produces one meter of lotus fabric per day.
A fabric with remarkable properties
Lotus fabric has unique properties: it is an amazing soft, light and breathable fabric.
It is the most ecological fabric as:
- It doesn't contains any chemical or toxic products,
- The manufacturing process doesn't requires any petrol, gas or electricity power,
- It doesn't use any added water,
- The lotus flower is an efficient phyto-sanitary plant which cleans the water and protects the ecosystem by preserving fishes and insects,
- All the process of fabrication is entirely sustainable.
Would you like to discover more about natural fibers within our Eco textile business ?
Awen Delaval
samatoa.lotus-f...
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