Banana fiber production – a green economic development model

Banana is the highest yielding fruit in Vietnam. In 2021, the country’s banana production will reach 2.1 million tons, one and a half times higher than the second-ranked fruit, dragon fruit (1.4 million tons). In addition to the benefits from the fruit, this tree also has great potential value, located in the trunk. It is the trunk that can make banana fiber, banana silk, thereby creating products of higher value.

Musa Pacta (musapacta.vn) is a very young enterprise, newly established since September 2019, but has succeeded in owning a patent for a useful solution for producing fibers from banana trunks. Mr. Bui Khanh Dung, the company’s director, pointed to handmade products in the company’s showroom and said, these are just a few products that “illustrate” what can be done from Vietnamese banana fiber.

Actually, banana fiber is not a new product on the world market. In recent years, banana fiber has been known as the raw material to create many high-end products, from fabrics, cables, climbing gear to interior materials in luxury yachts. Developed countries such as the US and Japan already have industries to produce products from banana fibers, but the source of raw materials must depend on tropical countries such as the Philippines, African countries, and Central America.

Mr. Bui Khanh Dung (white shirt), and the author and products

During his time living in Japan, Mr. Dung noticed products made from banana fibers that are used quite commonly such as money printing paper, wrapping paper, clothes… Since then, he has built a sentence in his mind. Ask, why a country with banana trees everywhere like Vietnam can’t create high-value products from this tree?

Returning to the country, this businessman born in the year of the Dragon established a company to fulfill his dream. The idea is there, but where is the equipment to implement this idea? Dung went to meet some mechanical enterprises in the country, but the first thing these businesses asked was where his drawings were. Dung replied: “The drawing is in my head, but I need you to show it on paper before making it.” So the mechanical enterprises shook their heads. Finally, Bui Khanh Dung founded a precision mechanical company to manufacture equipment for his ideas.

Products made from banana stems

National Assembly delegate Phan Duc Hieu asked: What characteristics does banana fiber have that are so popular and appreciated by consumers in other countries? Answering this question, Mr. Dung said that banana fiber is a libe fiber, has a hollow tubular structure, is a very stable structure, has good tensile and compressive forces. That structure also helps banana fiber to be a light, airy, and water-absorbent material. In addition, banana fiber is not as flammable as other materials. Banana trees are also available with natural antibiotics, so they are not moldy or infected, so banana products when imported into other countries do not have to go through complicated phytosanitary procedures like many plant products. other.

Banana is a plant with a very high growth capacity. A banana stem after cutting only a few days can grow back a whole hand. This plant is also very easy to grow, it can be said that almost every family in the countryside has it, harvest time all year round. With an estimated national output of about 160 million tons of banana stems, Dung’s company does not need to plan the material area, but only buys from households and cooperatives that are able to process.

Musa Pacta establishes a distributed, on-site, processing model to generate raw materials. A machine for processing banana stem to produce banana fiber is only about 500 million VND, completely within the investment capacity of a household or a group of households. The investor only has to pay half of the amount, the other half will be paid by the product that the company signs an underwriting contract with.

A special feature is that the banana fiber threshing factories produce zero waste because the wastes in the process of stripping bananas such as banana pulp, banana stem juice all become valuable products such as probiotics. plants, livestock, growing media, microbiological fertilizers. This is a green economic model, a circular agricultural economy, a zero-waste economy that is very suitable and effective for rural Vietnam, not only creating more jobs but also generating income for farming households. people from the raw materials available right on their land.

Minister Le Minh Hoan talked about an “agricultural economy”, with the implication of exploiting agricultural products from more angles. Projects and products like Musa Pacta’s are a model to realize such a policy.

When asked about the difficulties for a start-up business in a very new field like this, Mr. Dung said that there are no problems with export procedures, but like many other startups, the company need capital and space for production. “The cost of acquiring a premises is currently too high, new businesses are often thin capital, money poured into renting land and infrastructure has taken up most of it, even making profits is not enough to make up for it. This is an obstacle for small and medium enterprises to invest in production,” said Mr. Bui Khanh Dung.

The story of Musa Pacta evokes images of organic products, playing a key role in the green economy, the circular economy, like banana fiber. To be successful, you must have passion, and need the support and support of the authorities and unions at all levels, so that models like Musa Pacta can develop faster, and more entrepreneurs dare to commit like Bui. Khanh Dung, creating the impetus for the country’s changes.

Tran Thanh Hai

Deputy Director of Import and Export Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade