Bamboo products being made in Chuong My District, Ha Noi. The rattan and bamboo processing industry has the potential to develop many kinds of consumer products on an industrial scale. — VNA/VNS Photo Trong Dat

SON LA (Biz Hub) — The rattan and bamboo processing industry should be developed on an industrial scale in the future, according to experts.

The opinion was voiced during a seminar held by the Viet Nam Wood and Forestry Product Association and the Agro-Forestry, Seafood Processing and Salt Industry Department on Thursday.

Experts said the rattan and bamboo processing industry has the potential to develop many kinds of consumer products on an industrial scale, according to the Vietnam News Agency correspondent in northern Son La Province.

Viet Nam has 1.4 million hectares growing bamboo trees and 30,000ha of rattan trees, mainly in Thanh Hoa, Lam Dong, Nghe An, Son La and Yen Bai provinces.

Experts said this large volume of material which could process many kinds of products for export and local consumption.

Demand for using of rattan and bamboo products has also increased on world markets, they said.

Nguyen Ton Quyen, deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Wood and Forestry Product Association, said Vietnamese exports of rattan and bamboo products have had advantages due to their cheaper labour prices and production costs against other regional countries and traditional products.

However, those products have faced competition from counterparts made by regional countries, said Quyen.

Local enterprises have lacked knowledge about fashions and demand for rattan and bamboo products in export markets, had lower outputs and had no export strategies on large scales, he said.

Further, Nguyen Manh Dung, director of the Agro-Forestry, Seafood Processing and Salt Industry Department quoted the Mekong Bamboo Programme as saying that the world bamboo market reached US$12 billion in 2009 and is expected to increase to $17 billion.

That is a good news for industrial bamboo processing enterprises throughout the world, especially firms in Viet Nam and China, Dung said.

However, most local firms in the rattan and bamboo processing industry are small sized enterprises and have not had enough capital to update their technology and expand production, he said.

To enter the world market, local firms should change the structure of their operations by 2020, offering a mix of 30 per cent traditional products and 70 per cent new products, the experts said.

With the new structure, the industry expects to take in $1 billion from exports, including $700 million from products that are processed on an industrial scale, they said.

The industry should also promote advertising and market research for products.

It should also develop support industries for the processing to increase its value, quality and competitiveness of the product, they said. — VNS