About Raffia

Raffia comes from the raphia palm tree, which is grown in tropical regions and in wet soil in Madagascar, Africa and the Philippines. The raffia palm is made of long leaves that can be as long as 18m, which makes it the palm tree with the largest branches. Each palm branch is made of nearly 100 leaflets, which are cut and torn off. 

It is collected by stripping and drying the freshly cut pale green strands and drying them by the sun. The dried raffia fibers then turn beige in colour to the natural colour raffia that is most common. The strands are then taken to a warehouse, where they are sorted and separated into different qualities of raffia, according to their colour, texture, fiber length and width. Each quality is then transferred to another section where they will be put into raffia hanks, balls, braids or spools. Part of the natural raffia is also dyed to obtain coloured natural raffia. 

All the processes from the raffia harvesting, to the dying and packing are done manually by the local people. Governmental laws limit the amount of harvesting of the raffia palm from June to October each year to allow the branches of the raffia palm trees to regrow before the start of the next harvest season. 

The raffia fiber is very soft, pliable, strong, durable, easy to dye and biodegradable making it an excellent material for weaving baskets, hats, mats and rugs. It is widely used for agricultural purposes such as tying vegetables, plants in vineyards, flowers and floral arrangements. Raffia is also very popular in the packaging industry and can be used as filler. Finally raffia grass is used to substitute natural or artificial grass in the movie industry and widely used by hunters to make blinds for camouflage.

Raffia is a very good material to use in the packaging as it works well to protect the products. It is a natural material, so it will work great for my project, as all materials I use, must be as environmentally friendly as possible.