Nettle Circle, a manufacturer of fiber from Himalayan nettle bark, has partnered with traceability solutions provider Haelixa, which will aim to make Nettle Circle’s nettle fiber from the Himalaya traceable and forgery-proof using the technology developed by Haelixa.

Haelixa, a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), has developed a DNA-based tracer that allows things to be registered without the use of physical labels or certificates. Information may be packed into artificially created DNA sequences using this approach. These tracers are combined into a liquid, allowing them to be applied to a variety of raw materials or products. The marking is not apparent to the human eye, but the product's legitimacy may be confirmed with a DNA verification test.

Last summer, Haelixa employed its DNA tracker in connection with the first Nettle Circle products. On-site, nettle bark was tagged with the DNA tracer for this purpose. The fibers and threads recovered from these barks are subsequently used to produce textiles. The first collaborative effort demonstrated that the DNA tracer can resist all phases of industrial raw material processing.

Cornelia Bamert, CEO and founder of Nettle Circle, said that because nettle fiber is new to the textile market, they wanted to make sure that Nettle Circle fibers were easily identified from the start. By utilizing Haelixa's unique technology, Nettle Circle is able to provide full traceability and transparency across the whole nettle fiber supply chain.

On June 28 and 29, Haelixa and Nettle Circle will showcase their collaboration at the Future Fabric Expo in London. The trade fair will attempt to highlight the possibilities of nettle fibers.