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From silkworm to silk

Ueli Ramseier has a vision. He wants to bring silkworm breeding back to Switzerland. Not much is left of the one-time silk superpower. The last breeders in Ticino closed their businesses before the First World War.

The association of Swiss silk producers, swiss silk, wants to revive silk production in in the country. The industry was one of Switzerland’s biggest in 1900. The long-term goal is annual production of 10 tons of raw silk, which would provide a substantial side income for 300 farmers. Ueli Ramseier, federal official, trained textile chemist and a farmer on the side, is one of the initiators of the project. Photographer Tomas Wüthrich accompanied Ramseier while he worked.

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR