Rizome Philippines will invest up to $100 million (P5.5 billion) for an engineered bamboo plant in Cagayan de Oro.
But the company said policies supporting the sector are needed for the industry to truly flourish.
Former agriculture secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr., an investor at Rizome Philippines through subsidiary Bamboo Ecologic Export Corp., will bring a proprietary technology in bamboo wood manufacturing for the project.
Rizome Philippines said its parent firm based on Florida, USA, will finance the investment through loans, offset credits for capital equipment startup and operational expenses.
“I became a global investor cause I want to bring the best technology here. I don’t want the Philippines to be second class. The investment is big but (even now) our business is already a billion peso industry and it employs thousands,” Lorenzo said in a statement.
Lorenzo said the Philippines can compete with any country in the world in bamboo wood quality, particularly on Giant Aster species that grow abundantly all over Mindanao.
The $8-billion bamboo market is currently dominated by China.
Lorenzo said bamboo should be recognized as a construction material in the implementation of the Building Code in the Philippines.
He said engineered bamboo is a proven technology with attributes comparable to the strength of steel and concrete, is fire and water resistant and pest free, among others.
Lorenzo said to encourage investments in bamboo plantations and manufacturing, government should make it easier to process forest management contracts agreements.
He added huge ancestral domain lands for bamboo should be identified by government to give livelihood to rural and indigenous people.
Lorenzo said he met with Deogracias Victor Savellano, vice chairman of the Philippine Bamboo Industry Development Council, who reported that the Lower House recently approved on second reading House Bill 7941 promoting the development of the local bamboo sector.
Rizome buys bamboo slats of agrarian reform beneficiaries who have planted bamboo in Bukidnon, North Cotabato, Agusan provinces and Surigao province apart from communities in mining areas.
Rizome’s bamboo are then shipped in container loads to original equipment manufacturers in America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.
