Abstract
With a prominent trend towards environmental awareness, bamboo is considered a new alternative to plastic, which is helping to reverse the decline in Taiwan’s bamboo industry. Having conducted a questionnaire of 36 local bamboo product manufacturers in the Zhushan area, Nantou County, central Taiwan, this survey explored awareness of the industry in the face of its impasse and its demand for government assistance. The goals of this study were to analyze the predicament of the industry and devise revitalizing business strategies. The results indicated the local factories were predominantly small-scale businesses, most of which manufactured processed primary products. In general, the severity of the following problems was considered a priority: “lack of involvement of youth to pass down the business”, “high labor costs”, “reduced profit margins from price wars”, and “migration of manufacturing offshore”. On the other hand, the survey findings affirmed the following feasible revitalizing strategies for the bamboo-product industry: “promoting applications of bamboo as a green building material”, “making bamboo products eligible items for procurement by the government”, “encouraging more widespread usage of bamboo merchandise”,“launching an industry-driven talent training program”, and “establishing an information-sharing mechanism on bamboo resources as well as a platform for networking production and sales”.