Natural Forest Resource: Myanmar continues to export bamboo products

Bamboo is important natural forest resource that can be used for numerous purposes. Myanmar is the 3rd largest bamboo resource country in the world and 8 % of world bamboo species naturally grow across the country.

Myanmar Forest Department designated over 447,000 acres in BagoYoma, Rakhine Yoma and Tanintharyi region as the major areas of bamboo growing, but only 6.4% can be produced out of total bamboo growing acreages in the country.

It has 75 genera, 1250 bamboo species in the world while Myanmar has 21 genera, 102 bamboo species. Most of bamboo genera in Myanmar is clumping type. So, it is needed to make carefully when thinning older culms growing inner parts of grove not to damage the younger culms in outer part and tender bamboo clusters.

One bamboo cluster is comprised of different ages of bamboo plants and in which, the annual produced bamboo shoot provides the foodstuff for the people and the daily use items made up of bamboo strips can be produced.

In Myanmar, export of natural bamboo raw materials outnumbers the finished goods and value-added products of bamboo. And the export amount of finished bamboo products is only 1.34% of a total list of various types of export bamboo products.

Once Bamboo-based industries getting developed, fresh and natural bamboo resources become to be effectively used without any waste, and likewise, a whole bamboo plant can be used with no wastages if the suitable bamboo products can be produced through the different parts of young, middle and mature in each of bamboo plants.