Description

The pineapple cooperative, named “Hạnh Phúc (Happiness) Farm Produce Cooperative”, was founded by Nguyễn Văn Hạnh in 2015 in Tân Thắng commune, Quỳnh Lưu district of Nghệ An province. The idea of producing textile fibers from pineapple leaves came when I found that after harvesting, pineapple leaves were treated or processed using herbicides or dried and burnt openly. This was not only environmentally harmful, poses risks of forest fire, negatively affects human health, but also costs money. To solve this problem, he successfully figured out the way to utilize the leaves by extracting their fibers. The fiber is subsequently used to make products such as bags, hammocks, and other handicrafts. This innovation has significantly increased the profit of his cooperative and is considered an environmentally friendly and sustainable model.

The process functions with a fiber separating machine, which was locally created with an investment of 50 million VNĐ. The machine can process three tons of pineapple leaves and has a capacity of 20 manual laborers working daily. Every 50 kilograms of leaves can produce one kilogram of fibers.

Sources & further information: “Pineapple cooperative grows from strength to strength” at https://vietnamnews.vn and “Chàng trai bỏ nghề lái tàu biển về làm tơ từ lá dứa” at https://vnexpress.net, accessed on 18 February 2022.