BAMBOO processing in Jamaica is bearing fruit, with the export of a shipment of bamboo charcoal to the US market last month, according to Sharon Ffolkes-Abrahams, state minister in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce (MIIC).

The charcoal, valued at $5 million, was produced by Nelson’s Superfarm in St Mary. A second shipment is to follow later this week.

“In July 2015, staff of the BSJ (Bureau of Standards of Jamaica) was involved in facilitating the certification of another 4,000 bags (24,000 pounds) of bamboo charcoal for export. This has a market value of J$5 million in the USA. Work is presently being done to containerise this second shipment which is scheduled to depart for the USA on 8 August 2015,” said Ffolkes-Abrahams.

“For the sustainable production of bamboo, the Bureau of Standards will be implementing systems for bamboo certification frameworks, to make it easy for small producers and large farmers to participate in the industry for a very long time to come,” she continued.

Ffolkes-Abrahams was speaking yesterday at the signing of an agreement between the MIIC and the Organization of American States (OAS) for a grant valued at US$130,000 or J$15 million for the development of the bamboo processing industry in Jamaica.

The signing took place at the Planning Institute of Jamaica on Oxford Road, with Ffolkes-Abrahams and country representative of the OAS Jeanelle van Glaanen Weygel. The project will take place at the Peckham Bamboo Pre-processing plant in Clarendon.

Ffolkes-Abrahams said this new project was initiated by a cheque “in the sum of $1.4 million” donated to the Peckham Community Development Committee by Ambassador Dong Xiaojun from the People’s Republic of China at the launch of the programme in May.

“The new and emerging bamboo sector in Jamaica, as is illustrated by this Peckham project, will allow for many to find their right and profitable position in the GOJ’s MSME & Entrepreneurship Policy,” Ffolkes-Abrahams said.

The Government’s policy for economic development coincides with the OAS’s programme on Social Development and the Creation of Productive Employment, she said, “as both aim to promote the creation of opportunities for productive employment, particularly among vulnerable groups” as well as “focus on entrepreneurial activities for the youth at risk, women and the disabled”.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Member of Parliament for Clarendon North Western Richard Azan hailed the project for putting “idle hands to work”, as “rural Jamaica can help to create growth in our country”.

Azan also used the opportunity to announce the National Housing Trust’s commitment to the project through funding of J$10 million.