Common Fund for Commodities

Discover Technical Paper No. 56 natural fibres 2009 COMMON FUND FOR COMMODITIES PROCEEDINGS OF THE SYMPOSIUM ON NATURAL FIBRES Rome 20 October 2008 FAO, Rome Supported by the Common Fund for Commodities The Symposium and publication of the Proceedings is sponsored by the CFC and FAO. This document is published without formal editing. Any presentation or part of it, published in these Proceedings, represents the opinion of the author(s) and does not necessarily reflect the official policy of sponsoring organizations, or the institution within which the presenter is affiliated unless this is clearly specified. Additionally, the author(s) is/are fully responsible for the contents of the presentation and for any claim or disclaim therein. Common Fund for Commodities Stadhouderskade 55, 1072 AB Amsterdam, The Netherlands Postal Address: PO Box 74656, 1070 BR Amsterdam, The Netherlands Tel: (31-20) 5754949 E.mail: [email protected] Fax: (31-20) 6760231 website: www.common-fund.org Copyright © Common Fund for Commodities 2009 The contents of this report may not be reproduced, stored in a data retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the Common Fund for Commodities, except that reasonable extracts may be made for the purpose of comment or review provided the Common Fund for Commodities is acknowledged as the source. COMMON FUND FOR COMMODITIES PROCEEDINGS OF THE SYMPOSIUM ON NATURAL FIBRES Rome 20 October 2008 iii Contents FOREWORD iv OVERVIEW OF THE SYMPOSIUM v PRÉSENTATION GÉNÉRALE DU SYMPOSIUM x PANORAMA GENERAL DEL SIMPOSIO xv ໽✊㑸㓈ϧ乬ⷨ䅼Ӯ xx IS THERE A PLACE FOR NATURAL FIBRES IN THE EMERGING BIOECONOMY? 1 ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF NATURAL FIBRE PRODUCTION AND USE 3 JUTE IN SOUTH ASIA 19 COTTON IN WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA:ROLE IN THE REGIONAL ECONOMY & LIVELIHOODS AND POTENTIAL TO ADD VALUE 25 SISAL: SMALL FARMERS AND PLANTATION WORKERS 39 WOOL AND OTHER ANIMAL FIBERS IN SOUTH AMERICA 43 NATURAL FIBRES IN CHINA 53 COIR FIBRE IN ASIA 53 INDUSTRIAL FIBRES: RECENT AND CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS 71 AUSTRALIAN MERINO WOOL 83 COTTON INCORPORATED: NEW INNOVATIONS FOR COTTON PRODUCTS 111 ANNEX I: Programme 113 ANNEX II: List of participants 115 iv Foreword The General Assembly of the United Nations declared the year 2009 to be the International Year of Natural Fibres. The central objective of the year can be seen as promoting the use of natural fibres in current and novel applications, thereby contributing to increased levels of income for fibre producers, processors and traders, while at the same time contributing to the increased use of environment friendly materials in those applications. There is a diverse range of natural fibres, of both plant and animal origin, produced by farmers throughout the world. Total annual production is around 30 million tonnes, three quarters of which is cotton. Most countries produce some natural fibres. In some cases, such as cotton production in Burkina Faso, natural fibres are of major importance to the national economy. In other cases these fibres are of less significance at the national level but are of major local importance within a country, as in the case of alpaca fibre in the Andes and sisal in north-east Brazil. Proceeds from the sale and export of natural fibres often contribute significantly to the income and food security of poor farmers and processors in the least developed countries. Consumers use natural fibres in a variety of ways. The biggest outlet is apparel, but other uses such as home furnishings and carpets are also significant. Some fibres have more industrial applications, traditionally in cordage and packaging, but increasingly more in a range of non- traditional uses such as pulp for paper and in composite materials. In most of these applications natural fibres are subject to competition from synthetic substitutes. The Common Fund for Commodities sees it as one of its tasks to provide assistance to commodity producers to enable them to strengthen the quality of their production systems and to develop new products which will enable them to effectively compete with these synthetic products. The Common Fund is therefore pleased to have been able to assist FAO in organizing this Symposium, as one of the start-up events of the International Year of Natural Fibres in 2009. In helping to raise the profile of natural fibres, we are contributing, on the one hand, to the livelihoods of the farmers who produce them, and on the other, to the use of an environmentally-sound, sustainable product. This Symposium brought together people from many of the natural fibre industries to share views on the economic and technical issues facing these fibres. While each of these fibres is unique, they nevertheless have much in common. All, being natural products, are sustainable and healthful products, but all are in competition with synthetic materials. To varying degrees, technological progress has facilitated efficiencies in production and improvements in product quality to better meet the needs of consumers, and thus has allowed these fibres to continue to compete with synthetic fibres. Ongoing technical progress will be needed to enhance the viability of these fibres in the future. I do hope that the papers presented here provide a useful guide to the place of natural fibres in today’s world, and to the path they may face in the future. v Overview of the Symposium The United Nations General Assembly, in December 2006, declared 2009 the International Year on Natural Fibres. In doing so, it invited the FAO to facilitate the observance of the year, in collaboration with Governments, regional and international organizations, non- governmental organizations, the private sector and relevant organizations of the United Nations. The overall objective of the International Year is to raise the profile of natural fibres, and thus improve the welfare of farmers around the world. The strategy consists of four key areas of work: 1. To raise awareness and stimulate demand for natural fibres; 2. To encourage appropriate policy responses from the governments to problems faced by natural fibres industries 3. To foster an effective and enduring international partnership among the various natural fibres industries; 4. To promote the efficiency and sustainability of the Natural Fibres Industries. This collection of papers is the proceedings of a one-day Symposium on Natural Fibres held at FAO HQs on 20 October 2008. The event had two main objectives: first, to generate and share information on the economic, social and environmental significance of natural fibres and second, to form an alliance among proponents of the various individual natural fibres that would facilitate the furthering of plans for 2009, the International Year on Natural Fibres. This section presents a summary of the debates which took place during the presentations and at the concluding round-table session. NATURAL FIBRES The International Steering Committee set up in 2005 to guide the activities of the IYNF, adopted a definition of natural fibres as “those renewable natural fibres of plant or animal origin which can be easily transformed into a yarn for textiles”. This definition excludes man- made cellulosics, wood fibre, synthetic materials such as polyester, and fur (on the skin) that cannot be easily transformed into a yarn. Natural fibres may be classified according to their origin as cellulosic (from plants), protein (from animals), or mineral. Cellulosic fibres may be seed hairs, such as cotton; bast (stem) fibres, such as linen; leaf fibres, such as sisal or husk fibres, such as coir from the coconut. Protein fibres include wool and hair, and secretions such as silk. The only important mineral fibre is asbestos, but nowadays it is of low economic importance due to its associated health problems. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES The economies of most developed countries depend to a large extent on the use of petrochemicals, which are not only becoming more expensive but that are also associated with the release of greenhouse gases. The bio-based economy, namely the use of renewable fuels and materials, can play its part in lowering this dependency. Dr John Williams from the National Non-Food Crops Centre presents a brief overview of the issues and challenges associated to this proposition. Intuitive feelings by consumers about the environmental value of natural fibres may not be sufficient to warrant it a place in the bio-based economy, and therefore much needs to be demonstrated by the natural fibre industry so as to generate a preference for these products vis-à-vis synthetic fibres. vi A second paper by Jan van Dam from Wageningen University in The Netherlands explores the environmental benefits of natural fibre production and use. Starting with an analysis of the supply and value chain for various natural fibres, Van Dam presents a framework for carrying out a quantitative environmental impact assessment during the life-cycle of fibre products. Despite their complexities, the studies seem to conclude that the environmental impacts at farm level may be marginal relative to those observed at later stages of their life- cycles. Thus, the overall environmental performance of the life-cycle improves when residues and by-products are utilised instead of being discarded. He puts forward an agenda for R&D, including the exploration of the potential uses of “agro-residues”, namely options for a sustainable utilization of the by products of the natural fibre industry. DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Natural fibres are produced all over the world. Developed countries have important natural fibre industries, but in these large and diverse economies the economic contribution of natural fibres is minor compared to other industries. For some developing countries, however, natural fibres are of major economic importance: some examples are cotton in West African countries, jute in Bangladesh and sisal in Tanzania. In some cases, while fibres may look unimportant at the national level, they are of major local importance at the regional level, as is the case of jute in West Bengal (India) and sisal in North-Eastern Brazil.

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