ECOSOI: Greening the textile industry with pandan leaf fibers

Great benefit from natural fibers

Vietnam is considered one of the countries with strengths in the textile industry. The green and clean development trend is causing the world's textile industry to transform and Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises are no exception.

Realizing that in Vietnam, pandan leaves are an abundant agricultural waste, but the current way of disposing of pandan leaves is causing serious environmental pollution. Meanwhile in Europe, pandan leaf fiber is one of the high-end fibers used by many major fashion brands. Although pandan leaf fiber is 2.5 times more expensive and absorbs sweat equally, its physical properties are much more durable than cotton fiber. To soften the fibers, there are many steps and methods that ethnic people have applied, such as dew drying and stone rubbing. Therefore, ECOSOI worked together to research pineapple fibers to provide raw materials for the textile industry.

ECOSOI: Xanh hóa ngành dệt may bằng sợi lá dứa

ECOSOI was officially established on March 30, 2021, starting to develop fiber separation machine lines, market research and connect pineapple material areas nationwide.

To expand the market, ECOSOI has linked and transferred technology to raw material areas to ensure fiber supply to customers. Besides, ECOSOI continues to look for partners and new customers for pandan leaf fiber.

Sharing about the current advantages, Ms. Vu Thi Lieu - representative of ECOSOI - said that the company always receives attention and response from farmers in raw material areas and from local authorities. When the project comes into operation, it will create more livelihoods for farmers and natural fibers will also be the trend of the future, raw materials for the green textile industry.

However, ECOSOI, with its orientation as a supplier of natural fiber materials for the textile industry, needs the cooperation of investors and the cooperation of related units in the research and development process. develop.

Targeting large customers

Also according to Ms. Vu Thi Lieu, the target customers of the project are foreign companies producing leather goods and domestic textile and garment companies. Currently in the Philippines and India, there are units producing yarn from pandan leaves. However, ECOSOI has the additional advantage of making yarn rolls, leather products... taking advantage of available resources in cooperatives in Vietnam. Male. The product distribution channel in 2022 will be B2B and from 2023 onwards, the B2C channel will be developed.

In the near future, ECOSOI focuses on expanding markets, connecting raw material areas and controlling product quality.

In fact, there are many pandan leaf fiber products in the world today and the demand for this product is very large. Therefore, leather manufacturers are always looking for units that can provide them with pandan leaf fiber. ECOSOI has been included in the list of potential suppliers from 2022.
Regarding raw material areas, Ms. Lieu said that the source of pineapple raw materials in Vietnam is very large, stretching from the North - Central - South regions. On average, 55-60 kg of fresh pandan leaves yield 1 kg of dry fibers. Regarding raw material areas, the project already has raw material areas in Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces, then will develop and expand more raw material areas throughout Vietnam.

ECOSOI itself develops fiber products from pandan leaves. The advantage of pandan leaf fiber is its technical properties, great sweat absorption, and better tensile strength than cotton fiber. Besides, ECOSOI combines with some natural fibers but not with synthetic fibers.

In 2021, ECOSOI develops machines such as yarn separators, whipping machines, and carding machines to create the main products of raw yarn and whipped yarn. According to the 2023 plan, the company will have a new product line of industrial yarn rolls to serve the fashion industry.

Using technology that has similarities with the Philippines, the outstanding point of ECOSOI's technology is the average production of 4 kg of yarn/day. Meanwhile, the Philippines is the main pineapple fiber supplier for Pinatex, which can only produce about 3.75 kg of fiber/day. Besides, during the leaf harvesting process, if the Philippines produces 1 kg of fiber from 67 kg of pandan leaves, ECOSOI only needs 55 kg.

Currently, ECOSOI's revenue only reached 700 million VND in May 2022. ECOSOI's model is to transfer technology to cooperatives and businesses that have raw material areas, facilities, and labor resources that are local people. According to the founder's disclosure, ECOSOI's current customer is Pinatex - the largest producer of leather from pineapple leaf fibers in the world. ECOSOI has had small fashion shows taking place in Switzerland, Canada and soon Greece.

Faced with the great potential of pandan leaf fiber, in the recent billion dollar deal program, ECOSOI received an investment of VND 3 billion from Shark Hung Anh, along with support in properly restructuring the company and operating it. more professional and effective than now.