By the Caribbean Journal staff

Jamaica’s local bamboo industry has potential, according to Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce Sharon Ffolkes-Abrahams.

The Minister, who was speaking this week at a stakeholders meeting, said there was a “ready market,” both locally and abroad for bamboo products.

“We have now an order for bamboo charcoal, which is a very large (market), in the United States and in Canada, and so this has a great potential for us,” she said.

The Minister said products like bamboo could prove to be boons for the rural ares of Jamaica.

“We intend that rural Jamaica should also become prosperous and benefit from agricultural products, bamboo and other indigenous products that are here waiting to be developed,” she said.

According to Ffolkes-Abrahamas, the government will soon be putting forth a bamboo industry policy, with eventual plans for a Bamboo Institute in Jamaica.