Living with climate change – Part 4: “Turning” banana and pineapple waste into export products

Giving up his job as a captain, Nguyen Huu Hanh returned to his hometown to start a career in agriculture. Tan Thang land (Quynh Luu district - Nghe An) is where Hanh chose to establish his career. Pineapple is a traditional crop, the main crop of the people here, but if those sweet and fragrant pineapples are only sold raw, their economic value will be low. Therefore, Hanh struggled to think of ways to increase the value of pineapple.

Hanh chose to build a brand for pineapple as DUHAPU (short for Happy Pineapple). Pineapple is grown organically, delicious, clean, and safe. From fresh pineapples, Hanh has created more deeply processed product lines such as: dried pineapple, pineapple starch, concentrated pineapple juice... to distribute to stores, supermarkets, and grocery stores. Thanks to that, the Happy Pineapple brand is known by many people, and the economic value of pineapple is increased.

However, what Hanh worries about the most is the vast pineapple fields in Quynh Luu in particular and Thanh Hoa, Ninh Binh provinces in general. After each harvest season, the pineapple leaves are scattered all over the fields. People have to use herbicides to treat the pineapple leaves, wait for them to dry, then burn them, causing environmental pollution, hardening the soil, and affecting the health of farmers. Realizing that after the decomposition process, the pineapple leaves only have durable and flexible pineapple fibers. Hanh thinks, why not find a way to separate the pineapple leaf fibers to serve the textile industry?

That idea prompted Hanh to research. At first, Hanh chose old pandan leaves, used a brush to remove the pineapple flesh and obtained white, fragrant pandan leaf fibers. When dried, they were durable and flexible. However, this manual method caused the pineapple fibers to break and become short, so when brought to weaving villages for testing, the fibers had to be joined, which took a lot of time. Hanh thought of using machines to separate the fibers from the pandan leaves to produce long, uniform, and high-yield pineapple fibers. After having a fiber separator, everything became easier. Hanh composted the pineapple leaf flesh with an organic fertilizer for the pineapple. The resulting raw fibers were soaked in rice water and vinegar, and dried to produce pure white, durable silk fibers.

The fibers of pandan leaves can be used as raw materials to produce many products: fashion fabrics, handbags, woven hammocks, handicrafts... "Every day, a separator can process 3 tons of pandan leaves, equal to the labor of 20 people. And for every 100kg of pandan leaves, 5kg of raw silk fibers are produced, which are sold for 800,000 VND/kg. For each hectare of pineapple, farmers have an additional 60 - 70 million VND from pandan leaves that previously required them to spend time and money to process," said Mr. Hanh.

In the process of finding an outlet for pineapple fiber, Hanh was fortunate to connect with 2 partners to establish ECOSOI Company to research, develop and trade pineapple fiber, promoting the product to countries around the world. In September 2021, at the Gwand Sustainable Festival exhibition (an exhibition of sustainable development products in various areas of life) held in Lucern (Switzerland), raw pineapple fiber and handbags made from pineapple leaves were introduced at the exhibition. The product attracted customers from Switzerland and many other countries. Because behind it is a message of environmental friendliness, creating livelihoods from indigenous resources and for local people.

Pineapple silk has reached the European market and has received the first orders. This is the "stepping stone" for Hanh to realize the idea of ​​​​planning a project to lease land, build a factory to process pineapple leaf fibers, purchase raw materials such as pineapple leaves for people in the region and neighboring provinces, creating jobs and stable income for local workers. "In addition to the issue of livelihood, successfully processing pineapple silk fibers and exporting this product abroad has helped raise public awareness about the approach to green, clean, chemical-free fashion. Thereby, helping to protect the environment and fight pollution by producing products made from waste, developing a sustainable life", Nguyen Huu Hanh shared.

Hoa Tien brocade weaving (Chau Tien commune, Quy Chau district - Nghe An) has existed for nearly a hundred years, with its own unique patterns and colors imbued with Thai cultural identity. Moreover, the brocade weaving profession here has a lasting vitality, the craftsmen make a living from the profession thanks to export orders, the products are favored and chosen by consumers because of the pure natural materials: Silk threads are made from silk, pineapple fibers, banana fibers and the colors are dyed from natural materials such as: young mud, eclipta prostrata, red phăng tree bark, turmeric, lime rotten leaves, hom leaves, velvet leaves, almond leaves...

To be proactive in raw materials, villagers have grown mulberry and raised silkworms themselves to get silk thread for weaving; imported silk from Dien Kim (Dien Chau) and absolutely refused to use industrial silk or yarn. In particular, in the past 2 years, in addition to traditional silk thread, Hoa Tien villagers have approached and introduced pineapple and banana silk threads into brocade weaving. If pineapple silk threads have been supplied by the supplier to become finished yarn products, the great contribution of the members of Hoa Tien Brocade Craft Cooperative is to successfully process banana silk threads and weave them into purely natural brocade panels. Accordingly, banana fibers, after being crushed from banana stems, dried into large and small pieces of yarn, are brought back to the village. The women of Hoa Tien Brocade Weaving Cooperative have to meticulously remove each thread, separate them, then spin them to lengthen them into threads, roll them into rolls to weave into large pieces of fabric.

With outstanding advantages such as being flexible, absorbent, fireproof, banana fiber is also mold-resistant, breathable, lightweight, soundproof, and insulating, so banana fiber woven fabrics are very popular in the world. In addition to weaving fabrics for sale to partners, members of Hoa Tien Brocade Craft Village Cooperative have used banana fiber, pineapple fiber, and silk brocade fabrics to create handicraft products with high applicability in life such as: dresses, scarves, shoes, handbags, stuffed animals, carpets, blankets, sheets, pillows, mattresses, etc. Thanks to that, Hoa Tien brocade products are not only present in many big cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An, Hue, but also conquer the markets of Laos, Germany, France, Australia, Canada, Japan, etc.; creating additional jobs for dozens of village workers with an income of 2-3 million VND/person/month.

Ms. Sam Thi Bich - Director of Hoa Tien Brocade Weaving Village Cooperative said: “Facing the challenges of modern life, competing with industrial garment and fashion products, Hoa Tien brocade weaving village still maintains its craft thanks to its perseverance and determination in preserving its identity and natural values. The raw materials to make Hoa Tien brocade are all natural, the colors are also the colors of grass, flowers and leaves, no impurities, no chemicals. Thanks to that, Hoa Tien brocade is chosen by consumers, creating high value in culture and economy”.