SOLUTION TO THE GREEN ECONOMIC PROBLEM VIEWED FROM VIETNAM BANANA FIBER
Banana – the highest yielding crop in Vietnam. In 2021, the country’s banana production has reached 2.1 million tons, quite far from the second-ranked fruit, dragon fruit (1.4 million tons).
Currently, there are about 150,000 hectares of bananas for fruit with a large area at the farm and farm scale. If including the small area of households, banana varieties that do not take fruit such as leaf bananas, seed bananas, wild bananas, the area of banana trees in our country is over 200,000 ha.
Currently, banana trees are mainly used for fruit, a few can take advantage of dried leaves, fresh leaves, and fresh flowers. Banana stem is almost 100% cut, causing waste and even polluting the environment, banana growers even have to pay the cost of cutting down and discarding the banana stem after harvest.
That reality has continuously prompted Mr. Bui Khanh Dung (SN 1976) – Director of Musa Pacta Company – to find solutions to help farm owners and farmers to grow bananas, in addition to harvesting. fruit, there is still an additional income from the banana trunk.
“If you just think of the banana stem as being discarded, it’s really a waste. From the trunk of a banana tree, it can bring potential economic value when it is possible to make banana fiber, banana silk, and then create handicraft products, paper, … with higher value. , the owner Musa Pacta said when he received us in a room where, at the feet was a carpet made of banana fiber, on the ceiling were countless lanterns made of banana silk, even the tables and chairs were made of banana fiber.
As an enterprise with a very young age, established in September 2019, Mr. Bui Khanh Dung’s Musa Pacta Company has succeeded in owning a patent for a useful solution for producing fibers from banana trunks.
“The name Musa Pacta has a special meaning, which is a compound name from Latin. Musa means banana, and Pacta means covenant. It is a covenant to turn banana fibers into useful things together, to get rich together, to develop together, so that the country has one more preeminent product in the world market,” Dung said.
In addition, banana fiber is not as flammable as other materials. Because banana trees are available with natural antibiotics, 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 food products. other object.
From raw banana fiber products, people can also produce a variety of products such as handicrafts, paper of all kinds such as money printing paper, wrapping paper, to high-class materials used in the automobile and yacht industries. … create a double commercial value.
Only to find out more, he found that the world market for banana fiber has been formed and developed for about 15-20 years. It is a vibrant market, developing continuously with the world’s leading exporters of raw banana fibers such as the Philippines, India, etc., earning billions of dollars each year.
Looking back to Vietnam, he saw banana trees everywhere, and every province had a growing area. The first advantage of banana fiber is the abundant source of raw materials – which is discarded after harvesting the fruit.
“If you want to have 1kg of cotton, jute or hemp, you have to break the land to plant it, you have to take care of it, you have to wait, it takes effort, and it takes effort. As for bananas, it is different, the raw materials are available, so why not learn from your country’s experience to create high-value products from this plant, helping farmers have more jobs. job?” he thought.
Bringing that bold idea back to Vietnam, he decided to open a company to fulfill his dream. But things are not as easy as he thought. The idea is in the head, but where is the equipment to implement this idea is a difficult problem.
He found a number of mechanical enterprises in the country, but the first thing they asked him was actual drawings.
“The drawing was in my head, but I need you to show it as a drawing on paper and then make it,” Mr. Dung recalled and said that the answer at that time of mechanical businesses was a shake. head.
Although he did not have an auxiliary industry, but with the mind, will and efforts of a startup, he did not give up but decided to establish a precision mechanical company to produce equipment for himself. my idea.
Wanting to pluck a small banana silk thread the same size as a hair requires very high precision equipment. He tested the banana fiber factory in Khai Thai Cooperative (Phu Xuyen district, Hanoi) and achieved unexpected success.
During the cooperation process, the company has introduced to the market a series of machines for the banana fiber industry, such as banana fiber stripping machine, banana stem slicing machine, pulp press machine, and plant pot molding machine from Mrs. banana. , yarn cleaning machine… Also from here, the work at the cooperative has helped laborers in the area have more jobs.
Mr. Dung said, Musa Pacta set up a distributed, on-site processing model to create 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 durability of the machine is 20 years. The investment unit only has to pay half of the amount, the other half will be paid by the product that the company signs an output contract with.
Responding to whether the company redistributes the planting area or owns a long-term source of raw materials, Mr. Dung said that “the company has no policy of owning the planting area”. He himself surveyed nearly 7 popular banana varieties in Vietnam, all of them have good fiber ability, different yields in each region but not too big difference.
He said, with an area of 200,000 hectares of land currently growing bananas – this is a huge banana material area and if fully utilized, the output could be national.
Talking about the process of making a banana fiber, owner Musa Pacta said that the banana stem is exploited when it is old, after getting the fruit, the inside is fibrous. After the banana stem is collected, halved, peeled and put into the fiber press.
Banana fibers are sorted and put on a rig, dried, then bundled and fed to a spinning machine. The inner core of the banana body is the part where the softest and most flexible fibers can be obtained, and the outermost layer gives the hardest and thickest fiber.
Dried banana fibers after being plucked are plaited into large and small ropes and dyed in all colors. An average of 1 ton of banana stem yields 10 – 15 kg of dried banana fiber, currently purchasing from 50,000 – 80,000 VND/kg, depending on the quality.
From those banana fibers woven into bags, baskets, baskets, lanes, trays, carpets, slippers … with many unique designs. Even the scraps of yarn are still used to press into paper, make lanterns, or impressive painting paper.
Especially, after going through the process of squeezing the fiber, it is also soaked with bananas and biological enzymes for about 3 months to make an organic probiotic, suitable for watering ornamental plants and vegetables. tubers.
Accompanying us in the meeting with Musa Pacta Company, Mr. Tran Thanh Hai – Deputy Director of Import-Export Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade emphasized the trend of green economic development, sustainable economy, no harm harmful and environmentally friendly.
He assessed that the special feature of banana stripping factories is that they are all zero-waste factories, because the wastes in the process of banana peeling such as banana pulp, banana stem juice all become valuable products such as: biological products to serve plants and animals, the price of plants, and microbiological fertilizers.
“With products like banana silk, this is a very suitable product for the green economy, circular agricultural economy, zero waste economy and effective for rural Vietnam. It not only creates more jobs, but also generates income for farmers from the available and surplus raw materials right on their own land, “said Mr. Hai.
The Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department said that this is a good model of a green economy, a potential direction that businesses can exploit when Vietnam is possessing a very large output of banana stems. about 160 million tons of body.
As the first and only enterprise in Vietnam that produces and trades in fiber products from banana trunks, Mr. Dung said that because he is a new business, he still faces many difficulties because he is a new business.
Since its inception, the company fell in the exact year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The difficulty is there, because when facing the epidemic, most export businesses are greatly affected by high logistics costs such as the cost of transportation increased by 5-10 times compared to the time before Covid-19.
Export procedures are not a problem, but like many other startups, Mr. Dung’s company needs capital and space for production.
“The cost of acquiring a site is currently too high, new businesses are often thin capital, money poured into renting land and infrastructure has taken up most of the time, even making profits cannot be enough to make up for it. This is an obstacle for small and medium enterprises to invest in production”, Mr. Dung shared and said that any business wants to have a mechanism to reduce input costs, including prices. gasoline, electricity, etc. to reduce pressure on production investment.
Currently, the export of orders of the company to consumption in foreign markets still goes by the way of quota, through trading companies, there are no official orders and exports in large quantities. . “In fact, the output is still not significant compared to the inherent potential,” he shared.
Although there are many surprises, but I have the advantage of the latter, Mr. Dung said, he can learn from the experience of the predecessor. “Products made to foreign markets receive a very good effect because Vietnam’s banana fiber makes one of the most beautiful fibers in the world,” he said proudly.
According to Mr. Dung, products such as lamps made of banana fiber on the world market are selling for 200-300 USD, equivalent to 5-7 million VND, even 600-800 USD equivalent to 14-20 million VND. . Or the products made from banana silk are also sold for about 5 million dong…
Talking about future plans, he revealed about the next 2 months when the cotton and yarn factory of Musa Pacta Company is inaugurated, he can hope to have a high-quality fabric product line for consumers. and export. A new industry, a new ecosystem based on banana silk fibers will gradually be formed.
Performed by: Thu Huyen
Photo: Huu Thang
Design: Hoang Yen
Source:
https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/e-giai-bai-toan-kinh-te-xanh-nhin-tu-soi-chuoi-viet-a546231.html?gidzl=DUYGTKZpyduyzfLpHEhtSJhnaNfOx_vqSQ2RULde_NjqfPib2BhwA7Edcd88klqiT_2SScPCArOxIFVpTW
