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Fund crisis, lack of policy support, training and an almost non-existent local market are holding back Bangladeshi entrepreneurs from tapping into eco-friendly and sustainable banana plant fibre’s potential, stakeholders say.
The fibre can be used to produce environment-friendly products, including rugs, mugs, mats, baskets, wallets, handbags, paper bags, ropes, fabric, sanitary pads and even hair extensions.
Banana plants bear fruits once and farmers typically leave them to rot. But some Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have started exploiting the potential of the banana trunk waste and taking small steps to turn it into resources.
Abundant raw material
Setting up a fibre extraction business is easy thanks to cheap machines and available raw material.
Bangladesh produced 8,17,908 tonnes of bananas in 2020, according to data platform Knoema. It costs money and manual labour to clear the trunks after harvesting the fruit.
“We cut the trunks and bring them to our factory. It’s a win-win deal – we get raw material and the farmers don’t need to waste money on clearing their plantations,” said Nahid, owner of Jamuna Banana Fibre BD, a venture based in Sirajganj Sadar Upazila.
He said they rarely pay banana farmers for the trunks.
Low investment, high returns
One can jumpstart a fibre extraction business with a single machine that costs between Tk 30,000 and Tk 80,000 with a daily production capacity of up to 15kg. These types of manual machines are widespread in Bangladesh.
Mahmuduzzaman, the managing director of machine manufacturer Waste Agro Limited, said an automatic machine costs Tk 3,40,000.
“We sold machines directly to farmers and bought fibre from them for export. Our buyers were from China, Japan, India and Sri Lanka,” he told The Business Post, adding that a fall in prices in the international market forced them to stop exports from 2019.
Banana fibre extraction
The trunks are first cut into small pieces before they are put into the machine for fibre extraction. The extracted fibre is washed to remove pulp and sundried. It then undergoes a combing process before being sold or turned into eco-friendly products.
Nothing goes to waste. Even the leftover pulp can be turned into vermicompost, the producers say. Fibre shed during the combing process can be used to make ropes.
Finding buyers for the fibre remains a challenge that has forced many entrepreneurs to quit. But the situation is not the same for everyone.
“We sell our fibre to the machine vendors. We don’t know what they do with it,” said Nahid.
Each kg sells for Tk 130-230 depending on quality, he said. Even with labour and transportation costs added, the profit margin is high.
Banana fibre export hits a snag
Shahin Alam, a Chuadanga-based banana fibre producer, said buyers from Japan and Italy contacted him but he could not take the orders.
“We lack funding, training and appropriate machinery for producing top quality fibre,” he said.
Hafizur Rahman, a Sirajganj-based banana fibre exporter, said he had exported two consignments (25 tonnes each) to Saudi Arabia since 2020.
“I don’t get more than Tk 180 per kg during export,” he said, without elaborating.
But the pandemic disrupted business and the sector is still reeling from the impact.
Diversifying export basket, generating jobs
As Bangladesh moves out of the least developed country bracket, calls for diversifying the export basket, overly reliant on RMG goods, gets louder.
Stakeholders said banana fibre and goods could be potential export items. They identified lack of government patronisation as one of the biggest hindrances to developing this sector.
They sought policy and funding support to create entrepreneurs, generate jobs, empower women in rural areas and boost forex earnings.
But there’s a long way to go.
Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation General Manager Akhil Ranjan Tarafder told The Business Post that they had hardly done any work on banana fibre.
SME Foundation’s Assistant General Manager (Training) Abbas Ali said a project proposal on using banana fibre had won second place in their Business Plan Competition.
Abdus Salam Sardar, deputy managing director of the foundation, said they had not organised any training on this particular topic.
“We’re willing to arrange training if the idea is viable,” he told The Business Post, “but for that we’ll need good resource persons and participants who are actually willing to put their learning into practice.”
