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Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) urged the Government to lift the “export prohibition” on bamboo charcoal for optimum utilization of raw bamboo and higher profitability in the bamboo industry.

Indian Bamboo Industry

• In India, bamboo is mainly used in manufacturing of Agarbatti where, about 16%, i.e the upper layers of the bamboo, is used for manufacturing bamboo sticks while the remaining 84% of bamboo is of complete waste.
• The Bamboo waste generated in Agarbatti and bamboo craft industries is not being utilized commercially, as a result, the Bamboo input cost for Bamboo Sticks is very high compared to the average Bamboo cost.
• The Bamboo price in China is very low compared to the input cost owing to 100% waste utilization.

Bamboo Charcoal

• The bamboo wastes can be best used for making “Bamboo Charcoal” which has a huge demand in the international market.
• The demand for import of bamboo charcoal has been in the range of $1.5 to 2 billion and has been growing at a high rate.
• Rising import demand is seen in countries like the USA, Japan, Korea, Belgium, Germany, Italy, France and the UK.
• It is also used as a soil nutrient and raw material for manufacturing Activated Charcoal.
• However, the Indian bamboo industry is not able to tap the opportunity due to its “export prohibition”.
• The exports of Bamboo Charcoal, Bamboo Pulp and unprocessed shoots are kept under the prohibited category in India.