IN THE HEART OF Thailand's biggest pineapple-growing region, Apirak
Kijwimonrat supervises the harvest of pineapples from one of his fields to be taken to his canning factory for export to Japan and Europe. Until recently he also had to pay workers to cart away and burn the long serrated leaves that cluttered the
ground in between neat rows of remaining plants.

But thanks to entreprenurial spirit, those unwanted leaves have now become a small money-earner for Apirak. Local businesswoman Siriwan Phopipat has created a commercial success by making paper out of pineapple leaves. In the process, she is providing jobs in the low-income Pranburi pineapple district of
Prachuab Khirikhan province south of Bangkok.

The thick, handmade paper is patterned with flecks of fibre. It is used as gift-wrap, to make boxes, photo albums and picture frames for sale to Thais and tourists.

In addition to employing 11 people who work in the factory, another 15 are working in their own homes converting the paper into finished products. "To create that many jobs in a village this size is significant," says Siriwan Wutthiwongangkana, a municipal official and one of Siriwan Phopipat's business partners.

The process of transforming waste pineapple leaves into paper had been perfected by agricultural scientists at Bangkok's Kasetsart University, but it had been taken up only as a sideline by housewives in northern Lampang province. The next step, Siriwan figured, was to make a commercial venture of it.

It's almost as easy to make paper out of pineapple leaves as from trees or mulberry leaves, the source of Thailand's better-known saa handmade paper. "In the two millennia paper has been around, since its invention in China, people have tried everything. You could make paper from asparagus and broccoli if you want to," says Hart Phinney, a paper historian at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology at Atlanta in the United States.

Over the last 25 years, scientists and artisans--inspired both by quirky experimentation and by a desire to find alternatives to cutting down forests--have experimented with a range of vegetable sources. For example, in the Philippines, pineapple leaves are used to produce the distinctive, soft sheer fabric known as pina cloth. Now, Siriwan is utilizing the leaves in Thailand.

She and two other Pranburi women put down close to 1 million baht ($22,350) of their own to start a business called Sapparod, Thai for "pineapple." Although Sapparod was eligible for government grants, the partners didn't want to wait for bureaucracy.
Within one month the three women had built an open-sided factory next to Siriwan's house, put in place the necessary equipment and hired workers. They then paid the costs for three government-sponsored experts to come to the village and train 11 former field workers to produce paper by hand.

Sapparod buys pineapple leaves from local farmers, including Apirak, who now earns 2,500 baht for every five tonnes of leaves that he used to pay 600 baht to have hauled away and burned.
In the Sapparod factory, situated to catch a breeze that makes life more pleasant for the workers and allows the paper to dry quickly, the pineapple leaves are washed and then boiled with baking soda to break down the fibres. Several more washes and a mashing in a giant home-made metal blender results in a
greenish-brown pulp. The pulp is carefully weighed out-- 300 grams, the size of a baseball, yields a 55-centimetre by 60-centimetre sheet of paper, which can be dyed in 60 colours. The coloured pulp is spread out under running water over a wire-mesh screen and then left to dry for six to eight hours away from direct sunlight.
Siriwan emphasizes that every stage of the process is environmentally friendly, and the waste water is carefully filtered through charcoal before being allowed to run off.

After two weeks of trial and error under supervision of the government trainers, Siriwan's workers peeled the first satisfactory sheets off the screens. The local workers--nine women and two men--"didn't know anything about handicrafts, but they learned very fast," says Siriwan.

After kicking off commercial production in February, Sapparod got its first order from a Bangkok department store almost immediately. But that proved a fluke--and three discouraging months followed without a single sale. "I almost gave up," admits Siriwan. But, she knocked on business doors and flogged her wares
to the public at craft fairs.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
Gradually, orders began to come in. Several Bangkok stores now use the paper to gift-wrap purchases, and several Hua Hin resorts use her products for desk folders with guest information, welcome letters and menus. "They're a good local business and we are happy to support them," says Shaun Campbell, vice-president of
marketing for Royal Garden Resorts.

Siriwan says the business is already breaking even with revenues of at least 50,000 baht a month. But for the first two years, the three partners say, they plan to plough profits back into the business to expand and create more jobs. In the Buddhist spirit of making merit, "we don't want to make money for ourselves, the idea
is to create jobs for the local people," says Siriwan Wutthiwongangkana.

The company has won fans among Thai officials. "I don't know why no one from the government thought of this. It's taken three strong ladies to come up with the idea," says Worawit Meknopparat, provincial director of commercial affairs. "I like the fact that they are recycling waste that no one could find a use for before,
and they are creating jobs. It's also a paper product that doesn't damage the environment, unlike normal paper production, which kills a lot of trees."

Chumpong Limpikovida, the official in charge of developing handicrafts at the Industry Ministry in Bangkok, has had his government business cards printed on Sapparod's paper. As part of the Thai government's drive to increase high-value exports, his ministry is considering promoting Sapparod's products at a gift
trade show in Atlanta, Georgia, next January.

"There definitely is a very strong interest in exotic papers in the U.S. and pineapple paper would be of interest to paper crafters here," says Sharilyn Miller, editor of Somerset Studio, a U.S. papercraft magazine.

Closer to home, Chumpong sees Siriwan as "a model for other entrepreneurs. After her success, there are so many people approaching our department to find out about producing pineapple paper." And when Chumpong organized a workshop for entrepreneurs in Hua Hin last April, 100 people showed up for
training in making pineapple paper products. Of course, that means Sapparod may not have its unique niche for long. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Information provided by: http://www.undp.org.vn/mlist/envirovlc/112001/post4.htm
By Vern Weitzel