Category: FIBRES
Country: India
Region: South Asia
Greenikk developed the system by ensuring a steady supply of banana stem fibre to entrepreneurs and artisans to produce high-value goods having a huge demand in domestic and global markets, the Kerala-based startup said.
By PTI
MARCH 29, 2023
11:23 PM IST
Greenikk said it aims to ensure supplementary income for farmers by using the wasted materials for making banana fibre handicraft and textile products, and manure or poultry feed -- all under its own brand.
Agri startup Greenikk, which created India's first full-stack banana supply chain, has developed a waste-to-value system to strengthen the country's banana fibre-based industry, which turns the otherwise wasted material into handicrafts and textiles.
Greenikk developed the system by ensuring a steady supply of banana stem fibre to entrepreneurs and artisans to produce high-value goods having a huge demand in domestic and global markets, the Kerala-based startup said in a release on Wednesday.
India, the largest producer of bananas in the world, has around 120 varieties that are grown year-round and almost 20 crore post-harvest plant stems are burned or wasted every year.
Greenikk said it aims to ensure supplementary income for farmers by using the wasted materials for making banana fibre handicraft and textile products, and manure or poultry feed -- all under its own brand.
As part of the initiative, Greenikk said it had already made arrangements for providing banana fibre to markets in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, besides organising training for micro-entrepreneurs across the three southern states.
It said it was also focusing on various home decor products and artefacts made of banana fibre, as there was a strong demand for value-added products in overseas markets such as France, Spain and USA.
"By creating this waste-to-value chain in the unified banana ecosystem, our focus is on understanding the basic problems in the market and finding viable solutions that would benefit a wide range of industries and crafts using banana fibre," Fariq Naushad and Previn Jacob, the Kerala tech duo who founded the startup, said.
According to the release, the lack of adequate supply of raw material was a major hurdle for mechanised banana fibre processing that is essential for production of value-added goods profitably, they said.
"Another problem is lack of quality standards and specifications, with each unit preferring a different quality of fibre based on its colour, tensile strength, and cellulose content.
"Absence of a proper sales channel and lack of external support for training and design are also adverse factors faced by the sector, forcing fibre units to close," the startup said.
"Greenikk, which works with large players in the market like Reshamandi and Extra weave, has tried to solve these problems by developing a model created by its R&D facility at Theni in Tamil Nadu, a major banana producing region in south India. The model is based on optimising fibre output while minimising production costs," the release said.
"We did testing with 45+ varieties of banana breeds and shortlisted three fibre varieties based on their colour, tensile strength and cellulose content. The requirement of buyers depends mainly upon these three parameters. Our efforts have resulted in a healthy increase in demand for banana fibre by creating awareness about its prospects across 12 different industries," the Greenikk founders said.
Greenikk said it had partnered with more than 600 women artisans and, with the help of a design team, were developing unique product concepts for the global market.
The strategy involves creating a front-end sales channel to guarantee the regular transportation of finished goods, which will generate a proper livelihood for these women artisans, it said.
It has also created a new D2C (Direct to Consumer) Instagram page under the name greenikk.shop, the release said.
Courtesy: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/turning-wasted-banana-fibre-into-handicraft-textiles-agri-startup-greenikks-new-supply-chain-streamlines-process-10334401.html
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