Mexico Dreams of Challenging China in Bamboo Market
Mon Nov 1, 2004 08:04 AM ET
By Pav Jordan
HUATUSCO, Mexico (Reuters) - It can be used to build homes, make
deodorant, clothes and paper. Some industries fuel ovens with it. The
Aztecs made flutes out of it.
China may be the first place that springs to mind when we think of
bamboo, but it has long grown wild in Mexico.
Now, a handful of Mexican producers are hoping to turn it into a driver
of local industry able to one day challenge the Asian giant in export
markets from Europe to the United States.
A pipe dream? It may be, but a small group of growers in Mexico are
already talking about turning the tables on China and selling bamboo
into its most lucrative markets.
Analysts value the global bamboo market at about $10 billion, with China
claiming about half, and they see it growing to $20 billion by 2015, led
by U.S. demand for paper.
Mexican bamboo pioneers hope the country could take a piece of that pie,
winning back some ground on Chinese manufacturing imports into Mexico
and key export market the United States.
Mexico, which sends 90 percent of its exports to its northern neighbor,
has been losing U.S. market share to China in key sectors like textiles,
televisions, automobiles and computer parts.
FIGHT BACK
Bamboo is part of the fight back.
"In two or three years we could be ready, we could have an industry,"
Rafael Guillaumin said in Huatusco, deep in the lush hills of Mexico's
Veracruz state. He started planting bamboo on his 100-year-old coffee
plantations five years ago amid a global coffee crisis.
Guillaumin has formed a private group to promote the bamboo industry by
teaching people how to grow it, process it and profit from it.
The group, Bambuver, receives government funds and coordinates
activities with private organizations and universities. It has already
helped build low-income bamboo housing in Veracruz state at about
one-third the cost of conventional construction.
Bambuver is also talking with private industry in Mexico about
potential, future uses for bamboo in construction, as a fuel and as the
raw material for paper production.
One of Mexico's largest paper-products companies is looking at the
possibility of making paper from bamboo or using it for fuel in its
plants, Guillaumin said. There is also talk of major reforestation
projects.
Europeans like the idea of Mexican bamboo because it would be cheaper
than the Chinese variety.
"It's a lot cheaper and less time-consuming to transport," said Rafael
Bejarano, an expert in bamboo production originally from Costa Rica,
which also has a bamboo industry.
He said it takes 44 days to get a load of bamboo from China or Thailand
to Europe, compared to about 11 days from Mexico.
Growers are also looking at niche markets in the United States, for
example in the trade of edible bamboo shoots that are currently imported
from China and sold in tins and jars.
"They could get fresh shoots from us, instead of buying it in
preservatives," said Bejarano, who works for Bambuver.
Bamboo is a type of grass, but it can grow into 100-foot (33-meter)
giant timber bamboos as strong as steel and even more flexible.
It grows quickly, in diverse climates, from jungles to high
mountainsides and is environmentally friendly because it conserves water
and prevents soil erosion. It takes three years for a farmer to develop
a bamboo plantation from scratch.
A LOT OF WORK TO DO
But bamboo growers and promoters have their work cut out for them if
they want to create a solid industry in Mexico, in part because they are
starting almost from scratch.
"This is as much about creating a bamboo culture as it is about profit,"
said Bejarano, whose job it is to teach people how to become bamboo
farmers.
It is not clear how many commercial plants there are in Mexico though
Guillaumin says Bambuver has helped supply about 400,000 - some 400
hectares worth - in this nation of mountains, plains, jungles and
tropical beaches.
"There is so much land that could be turned to bamboo that is not being
used in Mexico because people think the land is useless," 79-year-old
Guillaumin.
Enrique Lopez, an 80-year-old coffee farmer from the hills surrounding
Huatusco, has planted Guadua bamboo, a hardy kind used for construction
scaffolding, on the fringe of his organic coffee plot. He sells the
bamboo to supplement his income and provide a natural shield for his
small coffee plantation.
He said a lot of other farmers are following suit.
nota de reuters emitida por victor brias en bambú plantaciones
reciban un abrazo
Alfonso
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