A Research On The Competitiveness Of China's Bamboo Industry Based On The Global Trade

Against the backdrop of growing economic globalization, countries are trying to arrange national production and trade according to their own resources endowment to achieve a rational allocation of resources.Bamboo is the most valuable non-timber forest product in global trade, and has been an important forest resource since ancient times. Its development and utilization in China has been outstanding. With the most abundant bamboo resources in the world, the bamboo industry in China has developed into a fully-fledged industrial system from cultivation, processing and utilization to exportation, and is the emerging pillar industry in bamboo production areas, as well as one of the most competitive sunrise forestry industries in the world in the past few decades. China's bamboo industry is more advanced than other bamboo producing countries, and it leads the world in bamboo resources management, processing and utilization. China's bamboo industry sets a benchmark for the world with its integrated contribution to the national economy, society and the environment, which promotes global awareness of bamboo's role in replenishing timber resources and maintaining an environmental balance, as well as stimulating the development of the global bamboo industry.Globally, bamboo has received more attention because of the declining availability of timber. Over the long term bamboo is likely to become one of the development priorities for most of bamboo producer and consumer countries, and a possible surge of the bamboo industry will be led by increasing consumption of bamboo products. As a result, developing countries rich in bamboo and labor resources have paid increasing attention to their bamboo industries and have begun to market products that bring serious challenges to the Chinese bamboo industry. On the other hand, resource predominance is easily broken due to the short growth cycle of bamboo resources. Western developed countries, using advanced technologies for resource cultivation and markets can supplement their resource shortages and provide strong competition to the further development of Chinese bamboo industry, due to their strong industrial base and technological innovation.This research measures, compares and appraises major indicators reflecting trade competitiveness of the main bamboo products in the global market in order to understand the competitiveness of Chinese bamboo industry. It analyses the competition pressure of the Chinese bamboo industry, including resource allocation, technology innovation and trade barriers within the framework of the Competitive Advantage trade theory. The competitiveness of the main bamboo products produced in China is confirmed based on trade data, and an overall evaluation of the global competetive environment of the Chinese bamboo industry is given. The outputs will be used as references for Chinese bamboo industry to strengthen existing competitive advantages and achieve a comprehensive, healthy and sustainable development. The research composes of three sections. Firstly, the position of Chinese bamboo industry in global environment is evaluated, based on a general analysis of the global bamboo industry and bamboo trade and a summary of the characteristics of the Chinese bamboo industry and bamboo products trade. Secondly, the key factors influencing bamboo industry are analyzed within the framework of the theory of Competitive Advantage, followed by an overall evaluation on the advantages and disadvantages for Chinese bamboo industry's development and a few recommendations are proposed to improve the condition. Thirdly, based on the appraisal on the industry development and products characters, major indexes reflecting trade competitive of main bamboo products in global trade market are measured and compared and a general evaluation on Chinese bamboo industry is concluded.The research indicates that according to a comparison of major indexes reflecting the net export status, the global market share and product competition strength, a general conclusion can be made, that is, bamboo products made in China occupy a comparatively strong competitiveness in global competition market. Most bamboo products are net exported and have considerable export market share and their constantly increasing competitive strength and predominant status is not likely to change in the short term. Of these, plaited products enjoy the highest competitiveness, followed by bamboo shoots, further-processed products, furniture and raw bamboo materials. Via analysis of the key factors influencing the competitiveness of the bamboo industry, it is concluded that the Chinese bamboo industry has reached a relatively mature stage of development, based on its rich resources endowment.Meanwhile, the industry is still at a primary stage from factor-driven to investment-driven and facing competition pressure from various aspects of resources, environment, technology innovation, and so on, along with the rapid development of the global bamboo industry. The Chinese bamboo industry enjoys traditional advantages of rich resources and a favored industrial base as well as integrated advantages of advanced scientific research and leading industrialization in the world. But at the same time, it also faces serious restrictive factors in industrial structure, scale management, capital investment and technological innovation and the strong challenges from competitor countries. Thus the Chinese bamboo industry is in a situation of co-existence of advantages and disadvantages, a balancing act in which for the moment, its advantages outweigh its disadvantages, but in the long run, its challenges may be more than its opportunities.The highlights of the research include appraisal of the competitiveness of the Chinese bamboo industry by comparing the competitiveness indexes of bamboo products with a global view and analysis of the key elements of the bamboo industry within the theory of Trade Competitiveness, which provides an innovated approach and method for similar research in future. Unfortunately, some indexes of competitiveness are not included in the measuring system due to the lack of availability of data, which could be improved in future studies.