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 the juice: saponins can be extracted, in particular hecogenine and ticogenine, but their commercial production has been hindered by several hurdles
In 2005, 17,000 hectares were dedicated to grow fique in Colombia, representing the 0.83% of the permanent crops grown in Colombia. During the 2000-2005 period, the number of hectares dedicated to fique decreased by 2.6%. However, in the same period, the production volume increased by 1.5%, reaching 21,445 tonnes in 2005. Hence average yield per hectare increased by 2.1%, reaching 1.2 tonnes per hectare in 2005. The following chart illustrates fique’s value chain, as well as including the main industrial trasnformers and consumers of its fibre:
Apart from several projects to keep improving fique’s productivity, Colombia will host Fibratec 2009 between 25th and 29th of November in Bucaramanga. Fibratec 2009 is the V International Simposium of Natural Fibres and it is organised by Fenalfique, Colombian National Fique Federation. I ‘d like to thank Francisco Javier Corrales León for sending me the information. I apologise once again for not being able to offer a link or more information related with Fibratec 2009 (we may be able to see a reference webpage soon)
Other sources of information (Spanish):
http://www.agrocadenas.gov.co/fique/documentos/caracterizacion_fique.pdf
http://www.agronet.gov.co/www/docs_agronet/2008519105246_BULLETS_CADEFIQUE_2008.pdf
New applications for fique:
http://www.biodiversityreporting.org/article.sub?docId=8235&c=Colombia&cRef=Colombia&year=2004
Profile of Francisco Javier Corrales León en Agro 2.0:
http://www.agro20.com/profile/FRANCISCOJAVIERCORRALESLEON
