Image Source : MAGICBRICKS Representational picture
Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDoNER) Secretary Chanchal Kumar said his ministry would explore the market opportunities for bamboo in domestic and overseas markets. He asserted the MDoNER was working with Amazon and two other companies to push the bamboo trade.
Besides promoting bamboo locally, the Ministry would also look for shipping them to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Myanmar.
38 per cent of bamboo produced in North Eastern States: Scindia
Union Minister for Communications and Development of North Eastern Region Jyotiraditya M Scindia, while addressing a roadshow in Chennai, said nearly 38 per cent of the Bamboo was produced in the North Eastern States.
Aiming at exploring the furniture industry
This provides a huge opportunity for Chennai which has a huge furniture-making industry, he said. “Today, we can grow that Bamboo, process it to manufacture furniture and export it (to other parts of the country). Right now, my Ministry is working with Amazon and two other companies to adopt self-help groups in the North East. Starting with two states – Tripura and Nagaland, where we plan to do end-to-end value processing of Bamboo. So, the possibilities are endless,” Scindia said.
“We are going to market it. Marketing can be domestic and export. You have to come with quality. These companies will be helping them (Self Help Groups in North East) in designing world-class Bamboo items like furniture, and boards. So it will help the farmers aggregate and take it to the end user. The entire value chain has to pick up,” Kumar said.
Elaborating on the initiative he said that after the companies entered into a tie-up with the ministry, it (the ministry) will help the companies to market the products easily.
“Once it captures the domestic market, then we will go international. The ultimate aim is to go to the markets of neighbouring countries including Bangladesh, Thailand, and Myanmar,” he noted.
He underlined that the North East holds a majority of Bamboo resources in the country and offers a great opportunity to the furniture industry in Chennai.
