China’s textile exporters are taking an early step toward the European Union’s incoming Digital Product Passport regime, with NAFFIC and traceability platform AWARE unveiling what they describe as the first passport built to bridge Chinese manufacturing data with EU-style compliance expectations. The National Advanced Functional Fibre Innovation Centre (NAFFIC) and AWARE said they have launched the “world’s first” China-EU Digital Product Passport for a textile product, positioning it as a practical template ahead of the EU’s 2027 requirement for textiles sold in the bloc.
Under the EU framework, DPPs are expected to provide scannable evidence of product origin and environmental footprint, allowing regulators, brands and consumers to access key supply-chain and impact data at item level. NAFFIC and AWARE said their pilot is the first time a DPP has been produced that captures end-to-end production in China while meeting the structure and transparency expectations emerging in Europe.
The first product covered is a recycled polyester textile with a fully mapped chain of custody. The passport traces the journey from post-consumer plastic bottles collected in China and processed into flakes, through yarn spinning by Jiangsu Reborn Eco-Tech, fabric weaving by Wujiang City Chaodai Textiles, and garment manufacturing by Suzhou Qiandai Life Technology Development. The finished product was made for European brand Iqoniq.
According to the partners, every step is logged on a public blockchain, enabling independent verification. Consumers, brands and regulators can access the record simply by scanning a QR code, which links to the supply-chain history and supporting documentation. The aim is to address a longstanding gap in textile traceability: the distance between claims made downstream and the data created upstream on factory floors.
The system integrates NAFFIC’s Sustainable Textiles Credible Platform (STCP) with AWARE’s feedstock-level verification tools, including Feedstock Source Declarations and Transaction Certificates. AWARE said it generates unique data tokens anchored to blockchain for each production batch, creating a Material DPP that can follow the product through each stage of transformation.
As the material moves from spinner to weaver to garment maker, the platform automatically records transactions and generates a “Crypto TC” and a traceability record, intended to provide a tamper-resistant log of custody and conversion. NAFFIC and AWARE frame this as essential for a scalable China-EU Digital Product Passport approach, because it reduces the reliance on manual document collection and after-the-fact auditing.
AWARE founder Feico van der Veen said the shift should be understood as a global supply-chain reset, not a regional compliance exercise. “This is not just a European regulation. It is a transformation of global supply chains — and it starts here in China,” explained van der Veen. “For the first time, Chinese producers can give brands what they need most: irrefutable, blockchain-verified proof of what went into their product and where it came from.
“The data does not exist in brand head offices. It is created in factories. We can make that data tradable.”
Beyond traceability, the passport also includes an impact component. The partners said DPP users can view an Impact Report that calculates the product’s carbon footprint using verified production data, rather than averages or industry proxies. The structure can also generate country-specific customs reporting, suggesting a pathway where DPP infrastructure supports both sustainability compliance and cross-border trade documentation.
With EU rules approaching, the project signals how Chinese suppliers and technology providers are starting to align data practices with European expectations—while also testing whether blockchain-based records can deliver the credibility, interoperability and scale that the DPP model will demand.
