Leading sources of non-wood fibres

At the present time, the most commonly utilized non-wood fibre is straw, which accounts for 46 percent of total production (see table below). This is followed by bagasse (14 percent) and bamboo (6 percent) (Atchison, 1995). Other non-wood fibres such as cotton, hemp, sisal and kenaf are also becoming more important in the manufacture of pulp and paper.

Leading non-wood fibres

Raw materials	Non-wood papermaking pulp capacities
	1985	1988	1993	1998 (estimate)
	('000 tonnes)
Straw	6166	5260	9566	10187
Bagasse	2339	2267	2984	3682
Bamboo	1545	1674	1316	1850
Miscellaneous: cotton, reeds, sisal, jute, hemp, abaca, kenaf, flax	3302	6366	6870	7742
Total	13352	15567	20736	23471