Mizoram’s ‘bamboo diplomacy’ takes root: exports to China restart after a decade

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.