Bright prospects await PHL bamboo industry

The Philippine bamboo industry is seen as a new trade cluster with huge potential market worldwide as growing demand for bamboo as an ecologically friendly alternative material to wood products, sharply soars high, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) reported Tuesday.
DTI undersecretary for Regional Operations and Development Group Merly M. Cruz, in a speech in the recently-concluded Philippine Bamboo Congress (PBC), claimed that at present, there is a supply deficit is about two million bamboo poles for furniture and 340,000 bamboo poles for handicrafts, with an estimated demand of 3.5 million poles for furniture and 575,000 poles for handicrafts.
This supply deficit would require additional bamboo plantations of 150 thousand to 166 thousand hectares by 2015.
Cruz also said that the local bamboo demand stood at P450 million per annum. By 2015, the world demand for bamboo is expected to grow to US$ 15-billion to US$ 20-billion. The emerging products from bamboo will account 45 percent of the bamboo market. Traditional products are also expected to grow but not as fast as the emerging products.
Cruz encouraged over a thousand participants of the congress to invest in the country’s bamboo industry, citing that aside from increasing demand for bamboo, that there is low capital investment for many of its products, availability of technologies and land for its production, and sound characteristics of bamboo like fast growing, renewable and environment- friendly.
With the theme “Bamboo for people and environment”, the PBC was expected to increase public awareness on the potentials of bamboo in boosting economic growth and job creation in the countryside, and in helping preserve the environment.
The congress gathered entrepreneurs, investors, processors, farmers, manufacturers, traders, buyers, exporters, the academe, and key officials from national government agencies, non-government organizations, industry associations, and local government units to update them on the current policies and program directions related to the bamboo industry.
The event also unveiled desk and school arm chair made from bamboo, and offered seminars, lectures and consultations on bamboo plant production, farm or plantation establishment and maintenance, award-winning innovations in bamboo production, primary bamboo processing, secondary bamboo processing and equipment technologies.
“From 2007 to 2010, the global traded bamboo products averaged USD 1.49billion, with China as the top exporter with a market share of 46 percent,” Cruz said.
According to the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) data from 2007 to 2010, the major markets for bamboo products are European Union, United States, Japan, Canada, China, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, and Australia. About 57 percent of imports are bamboo flooring and baskets. The USA is the largest Western consumer of bamboo, with annual imports of almost USD 300M of bamboo products. Some 95 percent of these products come from China.
Cruz also revealed that the Philippine bamboo export market are the European Union, USA, Japan, Canada, China, Singapore, Australia, Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Russia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Mexico, India, Norway and Turkey. The country’s major export bamboo products are handicrafts and furniture.
The industry has an average global market growth rate at 7 percent or USD 8billion annually. [PNA]