By Henrylito D. Tacio
Not too many Filipinos know it, but abaca is one of the country’s most important products. In fact, you can find these products everywhere, anywhere, and anytime.
If you happen to attend a wedding, you will definitely see one of the principal sponsors wearing an ornate abaca fabric barong outfit. Try going to a shipyard and you will see strong abaca fibers used by mooring aids for docking sea vessels.
Now do this. Pick out one of the peso bills from your wallet and stare at them. Do you know that 30 percent of the paper materials for Philippine currency are now made from abaca fibers?
In a study conducted by Dr. Leslie Lantice-Diaz, it was found that abaca fibers can attain a tensile strength of up to 970 Mpa (megapascal). A 2.5-centimeter diameter abaca rope is capable of withstanding over four tons full before yielding.
“The very durable nature of abaca is not the only quality of this natural fiber that makes it in demand in the market,” said a report. “Its environment-friendly and biodegradable nature makes manufacturers, especially those in Europe, to use abaca over synthetic fibers.
“Coffee cups and tea bags are among the products that make use of abaca. These food containers highlight abaca fiber’s sanitary nature,” the report added. “Many European institutions had already adopted a policy of turning away from non-biodegradables like plastics.”
Aside from those mentioned earlier, abaca has many other uses. For one, the fiber is used for many things including handicraft, high quality bags. “Our sinamay is used as blade for wind mills,” said Dr. Editha O. Lomerio, project leader of Abakayamanan, a project that combines farming of abaca with other crops like coconut. Sinamay is a natural fabric made from abaca.
Roots may be converted into fertilizer and feeds. The roots of abaca are of primary shallow root compared to hardwood trees which have deep roots. These may be uprooted more easily and may be chopped down to be made into fertilizer and feed.
Other products are electrolytic condenser paper, high grade decorative paper, Bible paper, coffee filter, meat and sausage casings, special art paper, cable insulation paper, adhesive tape paper, lens tissue, mimeograph stencil base tissue, carbonizing tissue, currency paper, checks, cigarette paper, vacuum cleaner bag, abrasive base paper, weatherproof bristol, map, chart, diploma paper, nonwovens, and oil blotting paper.
Abaca has also food values. Abaca leaves, for instance, can be used as growing material for mushroom. Coconut extract may be used as soap as it can heal psoriasis. The flower of abaca may be used as hamburger material. “We want to promote it as a zero waste crop,” said Dr. Lomerio.
Known worldwide as Manila hemp, abaca is obtained from a tree-like banana plant, scientifically called Mussa textiles. It is indigenous to the Philippines. The Fiber Industry Development Authority (FIDA) shares this information: “Abaca has been grown in the Philippines for centuries, long before the Spanish occupation. When Magellan and his companions arrived in Cebu in 1521, they noticed that the natives were wearing clothes made from the fiber of abaca plant, noting further that the weaving of the fiber was already widespread in the island.”
However, it was not until 1685 that abaca was known in the Western world. Then, in 1820, John White, an American naval officer, brought few abaca fibers for testing to the United States. It proved to have superior tensile strength over any other known cordage, especially under sea water.
“The Japanese also took keen interest in abaca for naval use,” wrote Ernee Lawagan in an article which appeared in the defunct Mod. “They improved the method of production introduced by the Americans and put the abaca industry in the Philippines to a higher level of efficiency.”
It was in the 1920s when the Philippines monopolized the world production of abaca fibers. “During those times, wars were won by countries with superior navies and considering that cordage was vital to naval operation, the Philippine monopoly in abaca production alarmed the Americans,” reported Lawagan.
“In 1921, the U.S. Department of Agriculture decided to cultivate abaca in Central America, particularly in Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras, using the most outstanding Philippine abaca varieties. Much of these resulted in failure,” Lawagan wrote.
After World War II, Furukawa Yoshizo, one of the prewar abaca plantation owners in Davao, started field-testing and successfully cultivating abaca in Ecuador. “Today, Ecuador is the only other country commercially producing abaca in the world,” Lawagan noted. “Costa Rica, on the other hand, is now developing modern harvest facilities as studies indicated that its land could accommodate high yields of the crop.”
In later years, on the onrush of modern technology, abaca was relegated to the background. Lawagan reported: “The advent of oil-based synthetic fibers in the mid-1950s, which rapidly replaced the traditional usage of natural fibers, displaced abaca as prime cordage material and precipitated its almost total collapse. The Philippine abaca industry suffered a slump as prices hit rock-bottom that several farmers eventually phased out their plantations.”
But thanks to the global shortage of many natural resources and the pollution being wrought by synthetic products on the environment, abaca stages a comeback. FIDA reports: “Significant breakthroughs in technology and processes took place in the ‘60s that brought about development of new uses for abaca, particularly in the use of pulp for the production of specialty paper products.”
As demand for abaca for pulp use increased, Filipino investors became interested in domestically producing abaca pulp. Other investors followed suit with most of them tied-up with foreign companies, which, due to strict anti-pollution laws in their respective countries, transferred their pulp operations in the Philippines.
At the time when demand for abaca was declining, the government encouraged the development of the fibercraft industry. Fibercraft products like abaca rugs, doormats, hats, coasters, hot pads, linen and handbags became very much in demand abroad. By mid-70s, the fibercraft industry became the second biggest foreign exchange earner for the abaca industry, next to raw fiber exports.
The Philippines remain the world’s largest producer of abaca. As of 2010, the Philippines supplies about 85.0 percent of the total world abaca requirement and the rest, by Ecuador. From 2001 to 2010, the abaca industry generated some US$82.1million per year from the exports of raw fiber and manufactures.
Because of its economic importance, the government is pushing for abaca’s further development. “We have to push all commercial uses of abaca. Once fully developed, this industry can be a huge driver of economic and jobs growth,” said Senator Loren Legarda, who chairs the Senate committee on economic affairs.
Eastern Visayas is the country’s biggest producer of abaca fiber. The other top provinces are Catanduanes, Lanao del Sur, Davao del Sur, Leyte, Sulu, Davao Oriental, Camarines Sur, and Surigao del Sur. In 2011, the total area devoted to abaca was 172,528 hectares at a total product of 73,274 metric tons of abaca fiber.
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