After my latest post, which was a brief intro on 2009 being the International Year of Natural Fibres, I’m writing today about fique and its fibre, cabuya (I’ve left these terms untranslated, but I’m open to suggestions). Fique, or Furcrae macrophyla, is grown mainly in Colombia. Much of the information used to write this post has been taken from this report, published by the Observatorio de Competitividad Agrocadenas Colombia. Although I like to provide useful links in my posts, I have to admit that for this post it has been very difficult to find any information in English, so most of the links included are in Spanish.
Several semi-finished products are obtained from the fique plant: the fibre, also called cabuya, bagasse, solid residues and juices. Some of the commercial products obtained after further processing are as follows:
from the fibre: thread, fabric, packaging and, empaques y biomats
from bagasse: paper, reinforced fibre, conglomerates, mattress filler
from...
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