Mizoram’s ‘bamboo diplomacy’ takes root: exports to China restart after a decade
Treated bamboo shoots and mats from the Lunglei belt are heading across the border once more.
Trucks carrying treated bamboo shoots and woven mats left the Lunglei district this month for export to China — the first significant consignment in over a decade.
The resumption follows changes in export rules and investment in processing units that remove the bamboo’s natural sugars, allowing long journeys without spoiling.
Officials see bamboo as the state’s under-used cash crop: Mizoram’s forests hold an estimated 30 million tonnes of it, and the value chain could employ thousands.