The Tinarha Agricultural and Tourism Initiative (Tati) cooperative this week embarked on a 2 ha bamboo harvesting trial project in Uitenhage, in the Eastern Cape.

The 15-member team from Tati aimed to explore the commercial viability of establishing a bamboo harvesting industry in South Africa, with a R300 000 investment from development financier, the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC), backing the trial.

The funds would be allocated to the site’s development, to buying the required equipment and for general monetary support for the project, which would see about 800 bamboo plants deposited.

Tati also has access to another 100 ha of land, which will be needed for bamboo harvesting to reach commercial viability, should the organisation need to expand the scope of the trial.

The related value chain of a bamboo harvesting industry has the potential to create thousands of jobs and offers opportunities within the bamboo and product-related processing, manufacturing, distribution, financial services and retail subsectors.

Tati project manager Andile Yani said between 1 000 and 2 000 products could be produced from bamboo, including coal replacement products, carpets, pellets and bio-efficiency products.

Within the next three years, the ECDC expects to harvest the bamboo and measure the success of the pilot for potential commercialisation, moving to entrench the province as a leader and pioneer in the industry.

South Africa’s emerging bamboo industry currently had only 692 ha of commercially planted bamboo, 80% of which was in the Eastern Cape, ECDC risk capital specialist Phakamisa George said in a statement.

The country’s largest bamboo farm, located north of Bathurst, has 400 ha of planted bamboo.

The ECDC previously also contributed to the establishment of three 5 ha pilot plantation sites in Centane, Ndakana and Uitenhage, all in the Eastern Cape.

“The corporation [ECDC] has pumped R1-million into these pilot projects, which are community-owned in the form of cooperatives. They [the communities] are being trained in bamboo-specific skills,” George noted.

The Eastern Cape Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism invested R2-million to expand the Ndakana pilot project from 5 ha to 100 ha.