Looking for unexplored opportunities to produce local goods within Cambodia, the team of bamboo enthusiasts, got interested in bamboo as an environmentally-sustainable material in 2016. In the following years, they travelled around Cambodia as well as visited Thailand and Myanmar to see and learn everything about bamboo from other practitioners and experts around Southeast Asia. As a result a new enterprise ‘Kiri Bamboo’ was born in cooperation with other brilliant partners to bring a new chapter of bamboo history in Cambodia.
In the early days of my research of bamboo application, I was genuinely surprised how little Cambodians relied on bamboo in their daily lives compared with the neighboring countries. Locals would often recall how their families had great skills to make bamboo furniture or use bamboo for various household activities but somehow these knowledge were lost throughout the decades. Now with Kiri Bamboo, we are hoping to rejuvenate bamboo's beautiful heritage in Cambodia and bring along contemporary knowledge that elevated bamboo from ‘poor man material’ to a uniquely renewable and sustainable resource that can solve many environmental challenges of modern times.
Oleg Nashchekin
2016 – 2017 First steps: the field research of Cambodian bamboo farms and wild forests as well as the market investigation of local bamboo industry
2018 – 2019 Expanding the horizon: Trips to Thailand and Myanmar to improve knowledge about bamboo treatment, manufacturing processes and construction practices
2020-2021 Creating the foundation: Company registration in Cambodia, establishment of bamboo treatment facility and development of professional bamboo skills among our first bamboo craftsmen
2022-2023 Developing skills: Implementing various construction and decor projects around Cambodia