China’s bamboo products industry is about to Become Huge Enterprise innovation and new technology and new product development are like springing up, and the enthusiasm of developing bamboo resources is very high everywhere. In large provinces and counties where bamboo resources are rich, bamboo industry has become a pillar industry of local economic and social development, become the main source of economic income of farmers in mountainous areas, and gradually formed a new industry from the cultivation of resources, processing and utilization to export trade advantages.

A brief history of the development of China’s bamboo products industry

The bamboo industry is becoming more and more important to people because of its huge economic, ecological and cultural values. In fact, our people have always loved bamboo, and China is the earliest country in the world to study, cultivate and utilize bamboo.

Research has proved that China already knew various uses of bamboo in the Shang Dynasty, one of which was to use it as a bamboo book, that is, to write words on bamboo pieces and then string them together to make a “book”, from which the Chinese word “book” is derived.

There are many other aspects of the use of bamboo in ancient China, for example, during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, our ancestors had already made bamboo tools “orange” using levers to carry water and “high-turning cylinder car” using bamboo tubes to carry water for irrigation. Bamboo has also played an important role in the history of weapons development, from the original bamboo bow and arrow to the Spring and Autumn period of the stone throwing machine, the Song dynasty gunpowder arrows and bamboo tube musket are ancient bamboo weapons.

Since then, “bamboo products” have been used throughout our national life, such as bamboo shoots at the early stage of growth can be eaten, and its branches and poles can be used to make ornaments, utensils, musical instruments, furniture, and even houses and boats.

But the formation of the bamboo industry really has to start from the modern era. After the founding of P.R.C, areas with very rich bamboo resources began to gradually emerge as one of the main industries in the region, led by state-run enterprises in forest harvesting and wood processing.

After the reform and opening up, rough processing of moso bamboo and primary processing of bamboo materials were the main components of the bamboo industry in the 1970s and 1980s.

After entering the 1990s, with the popularization of mechanized production process of bamboo products such as bamboo chopsticks and bamboo boards, the bamboo industry in some areas also embarked on the fast track of development. It is understood that in 1988 2003, China’s bamboo output grew rapidly, with an average year-on-year increase of 19.32%.

Moreover, in order to promote the development of bamboo industry, in 1996, the former State Forestry Department named 10 counties and cities such as Jianou and Shunchang in Fujian, Anji and Lin’an in Zhejiang, Yifeng and Chongyi in Jiangxi, Guangning in Guangdong, Taojiang in Hunan, Guangde in Anhui, and Chishui in Guizhou as the “Bamboo Township of China”, when the total area of bamboo forest in 10 counties and cities exceeded 500 The total area of bamboo forest in the 10 counties was over 500,000 hectares, accounting for 11.3% of the total area of bamboo forest in China, and the total output value was about 3.5 billion yuan, accounting for 60% of the total output value of bamboo industry in China.

Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China’s bamboo industry has been developing rapidly, with an expanding industrial scale, an increasingly rational industrial structure, a gradual broadening of utilization fields, continuous improvement in technology and techniques, an increasing variety and quantity of products, and a continuous improvement in taste and quality. A new bamboo industry system is being formed from resource cultivation, processing and utilization to export trade. Bamboo processing and utilization is developing towards industrial utilization, deep processing, whole bamboo utilization and high value-added direction.

China’s bamboo products can be roughly divided into 7 categories, including traditional bamboo products, bamboo artificial board, bamboo shoot processed products, bamboo pulp and paper, bamboo fiber products, bamboo charcoal and bamboo vinegar liquid, bamboo leaf extract, etc., with more than 2000 varieties. At the same time, the ecological benefits of bamboo forest are being paid more and more attention, and carrying out ecological tourism of bamboo forest and receiving bamboo culture is also an important part of people’s ecological and cultural needs today.

In addition, according to “China Bamboo Industry Development Plan 2013-2020”, by 2020, China will build 1 million hectares of bamboo forest base, the annual output value of bamboo industry will reach 300 billion yuan, and the number of employment will reach 10 million people.

Where will the bamboo industry go?

How big is the value and development potential of bamboo industry development?

In recent years, through the government’s attention, the linkage of industry, academia and research, technological innovation, bamboo materials in building materials, paper, light industry, food, textile, home and other industries are widely used, the formation of more than 100 series of tens of thousands of varieties of recombinant bamboo, bamboo composite materials, bamboo weaving crafts, bamboo fiber products, bamboo charcoal products, new products, new technologies continue to emerge, the output value continues to increase.

It is understood that in 2019, China’s forestry industry achieved a total output value of 7.56 trillion yuan, and the import and export trade volume reached 160 billion U.S. dollars. Among them, the output value of bamboo industry is close to 300 billion yuan. China Bamboo Industry Association proposes that in 2030, the output value of the bamboo industry will quadruple to 1 trillion yuan. in 2050, the bamboo industry will reach the level of being on par with the forest industry.

At present, China’s bamboo industry has broken through the traditional forestry and grass category, covering cultural tourism, construction, building materials, chemical industry, food, paper making, textile and light crafts industries. Sichuan, Fujian and Zhejiang have become the top provinces in the country in terms of bamboo industry output value, with Sichuan Province taking the lead in the country for the first time. The center of gravity of China’s bamboo industry is shifting to the west.

At the same time, with the increasing efforts and depth of scientific and technological research and development in the bamboo industry, China has made breakthroughs in the cultivation and management technology of productive bamboo forests, bamboo glue board, bamboo building materials, bamboo furniture, bamboo food, bamboo beverage, bamboo charcoal, bamboo fiber and other bamboo product research and development technologies, bamboo product quality and technical standard system construction.

According to statistics, China has more than 100 national and provincial bamboo research results, with independent intellectual property rights of more than 450 bamboo products and patented technologies. The promotion and application of scientific and technological achievements have played an important role in China’s bamboo forest cultivation, processing and bamboo products depth development.

Today, the bamboo industry has become a globally recognized green industry with the development of bamboo resources utilization, and China’s bamboo industry has been made from a single primary bamboo industry processing into a large industry with an annual output value of hundreds of billions of dollars. For example, only one Anji bamboo industry has achieved a total output value of more than 20 billion yuan of industrial clusters, with 1.8% of the country’s standing bamboo volume, creating nearly 10% of the country’s bamboo output value, achieving the leap from selling raw bamboo to selling bamboo products, from simple processing to chain management, forming more than 5000 varieties of bamboo structural materials, bamboo decorative materials, bamboo daily necessities and other product systems.
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In the future, as China’s bamboo industry completes a new journey based on the tasks of “protecting and effectively utilizing bamboo resources; creating an industry chain of bamboo standard timber and intermediate bamboo products commercial storage; creating an industry chain of original bamboo forest food; creating an industry chain of bamboo building materials; creating an industry chain of bamboo plastic substitution; creating an industry chain of bamboo paper products; creating an industry chain of bamboo fiber; creating an industry chain of beautiful bamboo dwelling through the linkage of one, two and three industry chains”, China’s bamboo industry is bound to become huge.

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