Raffia fiber's cultivation and procurement processes

 

The raffia trees begin to be productive after about five years from when it starts its life cycle. The fibers obtained from a palm tree that is technically called raphia farinifera and is a type of plantation found in tropical, humid climates such as in Africa, South America, the Philippines and Madagascar. Raffia trees only grow near major water sources and are characterized by long leaves that can reach up to eighteen feet, where each palm tree possesses nearly one hundred of these leaves.

 

During the harvesting process, these leaves are cut and torn by hand in lines parallel to each other with respect to the trunk of the tree. Only a young branch of the tree is cut; the entire tree remains intact, not chopped. Normally only two or three branches maximum are pruned per tree and per campaign. Leaf collectors, gather the palms and brush them. From this, the fibers are obtained from manually harvested branches.

 

The following step involves drying them directly in the sun for twenty-four hours, taking on a natural raffia color which resembles beige. The producers specify that apart from the small head of the leaf, no part of the raffia is wasted. These fibers are then transferred to a warehouse, where they are sorted and separated with respect to their qualities: the color, texture, length and width of the fiber. From here it goes to another part of the company, where the fiber is packaged according to the buyer’s requirements, in braids or depending on the kilos in some kind of bales.

 

The raffia material, once collected and after passing the processes described above, does not need to be transformed into yarn, but can directly be used for the production of the final product.

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The raffia fiber now is available for our accessories collection. Enjoy!