Entrepreneur Nelson Yang (楊富翔) is reaching back into Taiwan’s history to turn the humble banana plant into an unlikely sustainable textile.
Taiwan is now the world’s dominant producer of advanced semiconductors, but the yellow fruit, still widely grown in the nation, was once a source of patriotic pride.
Yang’s Farm to Material, headquartered in the central rural belt in Changhua County, is turning banana fiber into textiles he hopes would one day supply global sneaker brands.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
“Back in 2008, European [sneaker] brands told us that they were hoping to find a way for food and materials to be produced in parallel, meaning that food and materials are yielded from the same land,” he said. “So we’ve been working based on that concept. What we’re doing now is making sure that all our material sources come from food or leftovers from agriculture or the food industry. We then transform those leftovers into usable materials.”
Under Japanese colonial rule from 1895 to 1945, Taiwan was renowned for its fruit, especially pineapples and bananas.
In the 1960s, the nation branded itself the “banana kingdom” to boost exports, now long since overtaken by the technology industry.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Yang’s company takes the middle section of the banana plant, known as the pseudostem and normally abandoned in the field after harvest, then crushes and dries it to produce the fibers that can make clothing.
Some of the fibers are turned into yarn that can be blended with cotton for socks and can also be turned into vegan “leather.”
The business is still in its infancy with no orders from apparel companies.
“Banana fiber actually performs better than regular cotton in terms of water consumption, absorbency and supply stability, making it highly promising for future applications,” said Charlotte Chiang (江夏碧), director of the innovation and sustainable design department at the Taiwan Textile Federation.
“Banana fiber could become a new highlight for Taiwan in the field of biomass fiber in the textiles industry,” she said.
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