A party of Chinese scientists has visited Brazil as part of a Sino-Brazilian co-operative effort to find new uses for bamboo, the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment has announced.

The website of the ministry says a delegation from the Chinese Academy of Forestry visited Embrapa, a company linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply.

The visitors and their hosts talked about transplanting Chinese varieties of bamboo to Brazil.

The environment ministry website quotes an executive of Embrapa, José Manuel Cabral, as saying: “The joint work with China will involve research on the adaptation of Chinese species to Brazilian conditions, genetic characterisation, conservation and also multiplication from in-vitro propagation techniques.”