Putting a human touch on machine-made blinds: KKA Co., Ltd has grand plans for its bamboo blinds factory in East Dagon township, Yangon.

MACHINES have been introduced to the production process of bamboo blinds for the first time in Myanmar by KKA Co. Ltd, a local company.

The blinds are still painted on in the same way as handmade blinds but the improved finish will make them appeal to a more discerning market.

“We are entering the local market first and then we hope to penetrate the Asian market,” said U Thant Zin, production manager for bamboo products at KKA, which in October started using machines to produce bamboo blinds.

KKA was formed in 1990 specialising in rattan household furnishings but has since added bamboo products, including plain and painted bamboo blinds and wall mats.

The company participated in a trade fair in Bangkok this October and hopes to soon win export orders. There are showrooms in Yangon and Mandalay for the domestic market.

“The bamboo blinds will be mass produced and the quality paintings on the blinds using acrylic will also be suitable for the international market,” said U Thant Zin. The use of acrylic paints gives a bolder finish and should increase market appeal, he added.

The market in Myanmar for both plain bamboo blinds and those with paintings on them is well established although sales slowed when plastic blinds entered the market.

The bamboo industry’s traditional commercial centre, in the Shwe Gone Daing area of Yangon, has been in decline over recent years. “There used to be around 10 shops and street vendors selling homemade bamboo blinds and now there are only three,” said U Kan Myint, chairman of the Golden Valley 2 cooperative, which sells bamboo blinds in the locality.

He said shops have closed partly because of housing redevelopment but also because the introduction of plastic blinds reduced demand for bamboo ones.

At KKA, new machines imported from South Korea, Japan and China are used in cutting, shaving joints, removing the outer layer, fashioning the blind sticks, sand papering and weaving the blinds.

Machines transform the production process. They are flexible – adjusting the blade composition allows a single machine to produce five different styles of blind – and they are faster. The machine being used by KKA can slice around 125 bamboo poles per hour while each bamboo pole takes about an hour to slice by hand.

“While it takes an hour to slice the bamboo, it takes twice that time to completely finish the blind by hand,” said U Kan Myint of Golden Valley 2, which does not use any machinery in production.

An eight feet square bamboo blind can be finished within a half an hour by machine whereas one five feet square takes an hour by hand.

“The machines also reduce the amount of wasted raw material,” said U Aung Than, factory manager of KKA.

But the production cost is higher by machine at K400 per square foot compared to K200 handmade.

The company uses 15 machines for the production of bamboo blinds and employs 22 artists and uses another 36 on assignment for the painting of bamboo blinds.

“We sell the paintings on bamboo blinds for one fifth the price of on canvas because they do not last for a lifetime like canvas,” said U Thant Zin.

One bamboo blind could last up to 40 years but may deteriorate quickly if insecticide has not been used. “We plan to give a guarantee of two years for our painting,” said U Thant Zin.

“We are also charging a low price to achieve market penetration,” he added.
Although producers like U Kan Myint’s cooperative may have difficulty fulfilling the large order size for blinds in the international market, they do get their blinds into places like the Thiripyitsaya and Pan Sea hotels and many local restaurants.

But with improved production methods, higher-quality machine-made blinds look set to become increasingly common in the local market and could allow a new export industry to take root.