ATTRA Question of the Week

J.K.
Oklahoma

Answer: Thank you for contacting ATTRA about starting a bamboo farm.

Please refer to ATTRA's publication Bamboo, A Multipurpose Agroforestry Crop.

You will find considerable general information about bamboo in this publication. As to your specific questions about species and buyers, these will depend upon your market. Before pursuing this idea further, please consider where you would sell your product. As far as I have been able to determine, there are no manufacturing plants in the US producing either flooring or fiber. All of the processors are in Asia. As for timber bamboo, I believe that the use of bamboo is not allowed by many building codes.

The possibility might exist for selling bamboo sprouts to restaurants. You would need to develop this as a direct sales opportunity.. Bamboo might be used at some paper production plants, if there are any in your area. A final idea would be to sell to nurseries or landscapers. Nevertheless, market research is necessary to determine the demand.

For further research, see the additional resources listed in the ATTRA publication. The American Bamboo Society is a particularly good resource.