Bamboo poised to earn US$1.4b in a decade – investor
Published:Tuesday | December 22, 2020 | 12:11 AMLeon Jackson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Jamaica’s bamboo industry has been tapped to generate US$1.4 billion in revenues over the next decade, an investor has forecast.
Anthony Dunn, chief investment officer at Delta Capital Partners (DeltaCap), which has both local and international partners, said that his outfit was particularly upbeat about the future of bamboo here.
DeltaCap is investing US$300 million in the planting of bamboo on idle sugar lands, said Dunn. The project involves the establishment of a factory for bamboo pulp in Frome, Westmoreland.
About 2,000 acres of former sugar cane lands in Trelawny will be made available through Sugar Company of Jamaica Holdings for the planting of bamboo, which will mature in three years, he added.
Dunn made the disclosure during a recent tour of the Organic Growth Holdings (OGH) hemp and processing farm at Swanswick in Trelawny. Industry and Commerce Ministry Audley Shaw and State Minister Dr Norman Dunn were also on the tour.
GLOBAL CAMPAIGN
The chief investment officer said that the scope for manufacturing bamboo pulp coincided, serendipitously, with a global campaign to remove single-use plastic from the local commercial space.
The ban on styrofoam and some plastics offered new opportunities for bamboo as an environmentally friendly alternative for straws, diapers, and toilet paper.
“A manufacturer of these products has indicated to us that they are ready to purchase pulp from us to make alternatives to plastics,” added Dunn, playing up the prospects of DeltaCap’s investment.
The bamboo that is grown at OGH farm will also be used in the cultivation of hemp as organic fertiliser is one of the shoot’s by-products.
Robert Weinstein, the chief executive at OGH, says he is delighted that he is in line to benefit from the organic fertiliser.
“We at OGH welcome the news regarding organic fertiliser because it will ensure that our farm will remain totally natural,” said Weinstein.
“This means that there will be no need for us to even think about using pesticides.”