Africa's Bamboo Industry Is Booming

The African region is one of the three main areas of global bamboo distribution. Despite the promising prospects, however, the bamboo industry has not yet formed a complete system in the region due to technical and financial constraints.

The African region is one of the three main areas of global bamboo distribution. Preliminary data show that Africa has about 5 million hectares of bamboo forest cover, and more than 35 African countries have natural bamboo areas, including more than 40 native bamboo species. Despite the promising prospects, however, the bamboo industry has not yet formed a complete system in the region due to limitations such as technology and capital.

Bamboo is known for its strong survivability and fast growth rate, and can usually be harvested within 3 to 5 years. As a high-quality wood substitute, bamboo is widely used in the manufacture of flooring, furniture, paper and packaging materials through processing and manufacturing by means of innovative processes, new technologies and methods. The bamboo industry is not only developed in resource cultivation and processing and utilization, but also extended to export trade and bamboo forest eco-tourism, etc., becoming a booming new industry.

In recent years, Kenya and other African countries, with the support of international organizations and China and other countries, have been actively committed to building a complete and mature "high value-added" bamboo industry chain.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), although Africa has 12% of the world's bamboo resources, its share of the bamboo industry, which exceeds US$60 billion annually, is only 1%.

Kenya is one of the major bamboo producing countries in Africa, with 133,000 hectares of native bamboo forests. These bamboo forests are mainly dominated by upland bamboo, which is found in mountainous areas at altitudes of 2,200 to 3,400 meters above sea level.

However, in Africa, bamboo is often regarded as a weed and its economic potential is rarely recognized. At one time, Kenya had as much as 300,000 hectares of bamboo forests, but as large areas of bamboo forests have been reclaimed for tea and farmland, the area of bamboo forests has declined dramatically.

In recent years, in order to explore the potential of this green industry, many countries in Africa have begun to actively promote the development of the bamboo industry.In 2019, the Kenyan government introduced a draft National Bamboo Industry Development Policy, which aims to promote the cultivation of bamboo and facilitate the commercialization of bamboo resources.

At present, the bamboo industry in Africa is in the primary stage of development and has not yet formed a large-scale industrial system, however, some local entrepreneurs have already sensed the business opportunities.

In central Kenya operating a resort hotel owner Joseph Kagwai, every year need to buy a large number of various consumables, including a small toothpick. He realized that imported bamboo toothpicks were more advantageous in terms of price and quality compared to regular wooden toothpicks, yet the local market was almost exclusively wooden.

In August 2019, Caguay imported a complete set of bamboo toothpick production equipment from China and set up a toothpick factory. However, unfortunately, just after completing preliminary work such as the commissioning of the machines, there was an outbreak of the New Crown Epidemic.

He said the factory did face some operational challenges under the impact of the epidemic, but has been able to maintain smooth production. In the future, he plans to develop the export business of bamboo toothpicks and explore the markets of neighboring countries by increasing investment.

As a result of the toothpick factory, bamboo cultivation in the neighboring areas is also on the rise.

Farmer Benson Wakaba owns a farm of about 30 acres. A few years ago, for the sake of environmental beautification, he introduced a batch of bamboo seedlings at a price of US$3 per plant and planted some bamboo randomly in all corners of the farm. However, to his surprise, the bamboo seedlings, which had not received special care, grew very luxuriantly.

Kagwai said Kenya's bamboo industry is on a booming stage. "We have imported machines from China and we also need to use Chinese technology to produce bamboo products."

The second phase of the East Africa Bamboo Development Project (EABDP), which supports the development of the bamboo industry in Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda, was launched in April this year, with the support of the Chinese and Dutch governments, and with the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) acting as coordinator of the project. The project involves product design, marketing and industry standardization, bringing huge potential for green economy, trade growth and income generation.

Odor noted, "China's advanced achievements in the research and development of bamboo processing technology and innovation of bamboo products have made us realize the outstanding value of bamboo." He believes that China-Africa bamboo industry cooperation has a broad prospect!