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Vietnam businesses keen on Lao rattan
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT) has said businesses were deeply interested in wickerwork potential in Khamkeuth District, Borikhamsay province of Laos, for its sustainability in rattan growing.
It is because Phothong and Sobphoune villages of the district have been listed by the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as rattan reserves, according to the MIT.
Executives from nine Vietnamese wickerwork businesses have conducted market surveys in the central Lao province under a WWF-funded programme, which aims to establish a strong wickerwork industry in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia by late 2011.
The Director of the WWF’s Vietnam bamboo project, Vu Que Anh, said Vietnam imports over 40 percent of rattan from Laos and the country now badly needs the tree as raw materials for the wickerwork industry.
Due to dire shortages of raw materials, a number of wickerwork producers in southern Vietnam have had to sign sub-contracts with northern rattan processors or shut down, Anh added.
Vietnam has also lacked valuable rattan species of high commercial value which are available in Laos, especially in the WWF-sponsored rattan reserves, he concluded.
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