Rattan is a naturally renewable climbing palm typically used in furniture labeled as wicker, which is the term for how it’s woven. And the price tag for this furniture is usually high: a real rattan chair can cost over $1,000, and as a material, it’s almost three times the price of bamboo! But getting rattan is complicated. What makes it so hard to harvest? And is that the reason it’s so expensive? EDITOR'S NOTE: At 7:03 in this video, we state that Sarimanto sells 1 kilogram of raw rattan for about 7 cents. This is incorrect. He sells one kilogram of raw rattan for about $14 cents. This would mean that farmers in the 1980s were getting 5 times, not 10 times, as much for the same amount. Insider regrets the error. MORE SO EXPENSIVE VIDEOS: Why Vicuña Wool Is So Expensive | So Expensive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSFh0rsidPU Why Muga Silk Is So Expensive | So Expensive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XjlV236RKU Why Wild Ginseng Is So Expensive | So Expensive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XnKDD5mXfY ------------------------------------------------------ #Rattan #SoExpensive #BusinessInsider Business Insider tells you all you need to know about business, finance, tech, retail, and more. Visit us at: https://www.businessinsider.com/ Subscribe: null BI on Facebook: https://read.bi/2xOcEcj BI on Instagram: https://read.bi/2Q2D29T BI on Twitter: https://read.bi/2xCnzGF BI on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/Business_Insider/5319643143 Boot Camp on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/Boot_Camp/3383377771 Why Rattan Is So Expensive | So Expensive