Once the leaves are gathered, a process of transformation begins that presents one of the greatest technical and environmental challenges for the sector.
During defibring, only around four per cent of the total weight of the leaf is recovered as usable fibre, that is, as cabuya. The remaining ninety-six per cent becomes residual biomass, known colloquially as bagazo.
Of a freshly cut fique leaf, how much is recovered as usable fibre?
- 4%
- Of the leaf is recovered as usable fibre (cabuya)
- 96%
- Becomes residual biomass, or bagazo
The scale of that proportion is hard to overstate. For every arroba of fibre leaving a plot, several times that weight in wet plant material remains on the ground and at the washing point. Traditionally this by-product has gone unused.
The impact on water sources
The problem is not only one of volume but of destination. Because of how the fibre is washed, the juices of the bagazo are usually discharged into water sources, causing negative environmental impacts on the streams and springs that, on hillside land, supply the very veredas where the fibre is processed.
Recognising this is not an accusation against the producing families. It is the acknowledgement of a technical gap: for decades there was no available, affordable and practicable alternative for disposing of that residue. Water was the only vehicle at hand.
The phases of the transformation process
The path from the cut penca to the finished thread comprises six clearly distinct phases. Each has its own timings, tools and quality criteria.
Harvest
The mature leaves are cut from the fique plant and sorted by quality. The pencas at the base are preferred, being longer and more mature, always respecting the minimum of fifteen to twenty leaves in the cogollo.
How many hours should the fibre stay submerged before drying?
Bagazo as an opportunity
Recent research indicates that the residual material from defibring holds enormous potential for making natural insecticides, organic fertilisers, agrotextiles and biomats, opening the door to a circular bioeconomy.
What can be produced from bagazo? Select all that apply.
The shift in outlook this implies is profound. What is discarded today as waste — and which also creates an environmental liability — could become a second line of income for the same family already doing the defibring, without planting a single additional hectare. The input is already there, produced and available.
The ninety-six per cent lost today is the fique sector’s largest untapped reserve.
On making use of the bagazo