Bamboo Products: Value-Added Items Fetch Good Price

Value-added products made from bamboo gained good market demand and increased income for the locals in PobbaThiri Township of Nay Pyi Taw.

Various handmade items are produced for sales on a manageable scale. The products include home decorative items, kitchen wears and personal accessories.

Owner, Bamboo Handmade Product, KyiDaungKan Ward, Soe Win Aung said “We started this bamboo business in a manageable scale since 2010. We produce various bamboo products like tissue boxes, clocks, baskets, flower vases, photo frames, trays, foot wears, hats, etc. according to the market demand.”

By producing the value-added products of bamboo, it could help for forest conservation. Also, the business fetches more incomes, the business owner said.

Owner, Bamboo Handmade Product, KyiDaungKan Ward, Soe Win Aung said “We would like to produce value-added products of bamboo. If we can promote the value of bamboo, it could also help to protect the deforestation. If we sell a raw bamboo, it can only fetch about 650 kyats for the whole piece of bamboo. If we produce a value-added product for mobile phone stand, we only need to use about 4 and a half inches of bamboo piece and we get 2500 kyats on the sales. We can get more for the whole piece of bamboo.”

There are about 25 species of bamboo in Myanmar and most of them grow naturally as undergrowth in the forest. The experts said Myanmar has high potential to earn foreign exchange from the bamboo products. Cultivation of bamboo on both small and commercial scales can offer significant benefits to rural people’s livelihoods.