The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has proposed the Central Government to lift the export prohibition on bamboo charcoal for the best possible usage of the raw bamboo and which will also help in elevating the profits for the bamboo industry. The current problem is the immensely high costs of input faced by the Indian bamboo industry because of the insufficient utilization of bamboo waste.
It has been advised that the export of bamboo charcoal would ensure that the bamboo waste is completely utilized; hence making the bamboo business even more profitable. Vinai Kumar Saxena, the KVIC Chairman, has asked Piyush Goyal, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industries, to lift the export restriction on bamboo charcoal for the even greater benefit of the bamboo industry.
In India, bamboo is generally used in the manufacturing of incense sticks (Agarbatti). In the process, a maximum of 16 per cent, comprising of the upper layers of the bamboo, is used for manufacturing bamboo sticks while the remaining 84 per cent of bamboo is discarded as waste. The Bamboo waste produced in the Agarbatti manufacturing and by the bamboo craft industries is not being utilized commercially.
This results in the increase of the bamboo input cost for Round Bamboo Sticks in the range of Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000 per Metric Tonne as against the average Bamboo cost of Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per Metric Tonne. Comparably, the Bamboo price in China is Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per Metric Tonne whereas their input cost is just Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 per Metric Tonne, because of the 100 per cent utilization of the waste from bamboo.
Khadi and Village Industries Commission Chairman Saxena said that the bamboo waste can be better put to use by making Bamboo Charcoal which, although has very limited use in the Indian market, is a high demand product in the global market. He stressed that the Indian bamboo industry is unable to exploit this opportunity because of the export prohibition imposed on it.
KVIC has been receiving repeated requests from the industry to raise this issue. Hence, KVIC has urged the central government to think about lifting the export restriction imposed on bamboo charcoal. The chairman of KVIC said that this would not only enable the industry to tap into the immense global demand but will also enhance the profitability of the KVIC units in place, by properly utilizing the bamboo waste.
Global Charcoal Demands
Remarkably, the world import demand for bamboo charcoal is around USD 1.5 to 2 billion and in recent years has been steadily growing at the rate of 6 per cent. Bamboo Charcoal is used in Barbeque and fetches around Rs 21,000 to Rs 25,000 per ton in the global markets. It is also utilized for soil nutrition and as a raw material for the manufacturing of Activated Charcoal. Rising import demands has been witnessed primarily in countries such as the US, Japan, Korea, Belgium, Germany, Italy, France and UK, at a very negligible import duty.
Relevantly, an amendment in the export policy for Bamboo products under the HS code 141100 was made in the year 2017, where the exports of all the Bamboo products were kept in the Open General License (OGL) category and were Free for exports. The exports of Bamboo Charcoal, Bamboo Pulp and unprocessed shoots, however, were mentioned under the prohibited category.
Previously, with the view to create more employment in the bamboo-based industries, especially in the Agarbatti industry, in 2019 KVIC had requested the Government for policy changes in the import of raw Agarbatti and also to impose import duty on round bamboo sticks that were extensively imported from Vietnam and China.
