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International

Bamboo Bicycles on a Roll in Ghana

California-based Calfee Design has been manufacturing and selling bamboo bikes since 2005, but when Craig Calfee visited West Africa the wheels started to turn. Calfee, a bicycle designer and entrepreneur at heart, saw the potential for setting up micro-manufacturing facilities in Ghana using local locally sourced bamboo and local talent. By 2008, working through an initiative he launched called Bamboosero, Calfee had set up two bike-building shops in Ghana. The bamboo bike builders in Ghana earn $150 for every frame they build, which, when completed, are shipped back to the United States where teams in Calfee's shop finish the assembly before sending the bikes to distributors. Calfee plans to extend the program both in Ghana and in other developing countries. Springwise.com (3/9)