By Antonio M. Ajero
MANUFACTURING mills which are processing coconuts, sugarcane and cardaba bananas into value-added products in Davao are facing the problem of lack of raw materials. This is mainly because of the shrinking of the plantations growing these agricultural crops, according to officials of the Department of Trade and Industry.
Davao del Sur DTI provincial director Edwin Banquerigo told reporters attending a recent Kapihan sa DTI that the Davao del Sur Sugar Central Co., Inc. in Hagonoy is operating below capacity because of lack of raw materials.
He said Dasuceco has the capacity of milling sugarcane from a total of 15,000 hectares of sugarcane plantation. However, there are only 12,000 hectares of land in Davao del Sur planted to sugarcane.
Banquerigo said lack of raw materials also bug Franklin Baker and New Davao Coco, both located in the town of Sta. Cruz which process husked coconuts into desiccated coco for export to Japan and other countries.
Due to an expected lack of raw materials, an export-oriented plant due for inauguration in Darong next month is eyeing Quezon and other coconut-producing provinces in Luzon as sources of coconut shells. Coconut shell is the raw material for coco sweetener-making.
The factory, a joint venture of the Antonio O. Floirendo Group of Companies with Japanese and Korean partners is slated to start operating in Darong, Sta. Cruz in May, Banquerigo said.
Also operating below capacity are the cardava banana chips in Davao del Sur.
“However, the shrinking of areas planted to cardava is not so much a problem in banana chips-making,” he said adding that “it is more of the fluctuating buying prices in the market that has become the disincentive to banana chips makers.”
Banquerigo strongly urged government authorities to enforce the law which prohibits indiscriminate cutting of coconut trees and encouraged big business to invest in the coconut replanting program as their corporate social responsibility (CSR) program of sort. “The replanting program is important to replenish the senile coconut trees which have become less productive,” he said.
Government, through the Department of Agriculture, should likewise be decisive in crafting policy on the seeming unregulated expansion of Cavendish banana plantations at the expense of other important crops like sugarcane, coconut and local varieties of bananas, which are all export products in their raw, and semi-processed, and processed forms, the DTI provincial director of Davao del Sur said.
DTI officials of the region headed by Regional Director Marizon Loreto discussed inroads and challenges in promoting the various trade and industry clusters in the Davao area with members of the trimedia during the DTI Kapihan, prior to the holding of the coco coir summit in Davao City.
Being promoted are the coconut cluster, the banana cluster, the mango cluster, the mining cluster, the tourism cluster, the wood cluster, ICT and seaweeds cluster.
The Davao Industry Cluster Capacity Enhancement Project (DICCEP) initiated by DTI 11 with different partner agencies and industry cluster teams received an award from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as the ODA Best Practice Award.
The situation in Davao Oriental, which is the country’s biggest coconut-producing province, is slightly different from Davao del Sur’s.
DTI provincial director Ma. Belenda Q. Ambi told Edge Davao shortage in raw materials is not felt in Davao Oriental since programs during the past few years have been focused on expanding production in raw materials like abaca, coconut, livestock, banana (local varieties), mango and other major crops.
“Now we are more than ready to welcome investments to increase value of our agricultural products,” Ambi said, thanking Provincial Governor Corazon N. Malanyaon for her leadership and encouragement of the programs of DTI.
The other DTI provincial directors also discussed their agencies’ individual programs promoting various products.
Nelly L. Esperanza, Compostela Valley DTI provincial director, said they have been promoting added value to mining industry, particularly the ancillary jewelry industry.
“Presently, we have a very active jewelry processing based in Monkayo, This is supported not only by the local government in Monkayo but by the provincial government as well. Supporting it are the line agencies of the government that include DTI and others,” she said.
“Our jewelry industry has been adopted as the provincial OTOP of Comval because of its tremendous prospects. We are giving a positive support for the mining industry because we know that it is beseeched with some issues. The jewelry industry is one industry that we derive a lot of inspiration from in terms of developing and economic trigger for the province,” Esperanza added.
She pointed out that Comval is host to the economic quartet for the region–mining industry, the tourism industry, ICT industry and agri-business.
We are looking at our province where economic development will really take place within a short period of time.
Apart from the jewelry industry, Esperanza said they are also looking at the coco-based One-Town-One-Product (OTOP) that is now being hosted by the municipality of Pantukan.
“We have made some gains in developing more products out of coco-based raw materials that include toys and accessories. We have also coco-based vinegar, virgin coconut oil, even perfume we have succeeded in developing,” she said.
Another OTOP is the ceramic-based products based in Mawab. “We have good prospects in the market.”
“We are also strong in our participation in the Davao Industry Cluster Capacity Enhancement Project (DICCEP) which ended last year and we are bent on contributing further to the development of the mining industry,” she said.
For her part, DTI Davao del Norte provincial director Nenita S. Nazareno emphasized on the “green aspect of the province as our focus.”
“You know very well that Davao del Norte is really noted as the top banana exporter. But our focus in terms of international trade is on the green market niche-ing focusing on the organic products starting with cacao of San Isidro. It is a newly created municipality but it has been able to breakthrough in the export market in terms of cacao beans trading aside from market niche-ing in terms of the traditional tableya supplying the top chocolate candy factories of Metro Manila and Cebu,” she said.
“Another green or organic product which we are pushing is banana chips. Traditionally, we are exporting saba banana chips but last year we were able to breakthrough with our organic banana chips. Basically, our product and industry development is anchored on two basic considerations – resource based and market driven,” Nazareno added.
She bared that they are creating model OTOP projects which serve as a learning centers for projects right now like AMS Fresh Fruits Producers Cooperative (AMSFFPCO) producing banana flour from Cavendish rejects.
“We are value-adding, we are trying to institutionalize the value chain approach wherein we look into the gaps and address the gaps. So for the banana rejects, we are promoting process-grade bananas, we are value-adding because the traditional use was for the feed-grade bananas for the industrial flour. We are able to produce food-grade banana flour which is really a substitute for imported wheat flour,” she added.
Teolulo Pasawa, Davao City DTI director, also pointed out that the city hosts many prospective investors being the first stop of a prospective investors in the region.
For the past two to three months, he said, the city has been hosting a number of visitors including a Shanghai-based trader who wants to purchase up to 10 vans of Cavendish bananas a week.
“That would mean additional foreign exchange for us a well as job opportunities for the expansions that growers have to undergo in order to meet the rapidly growing demand for bananas abroad,” he said.
Pasawa also pointed out the number of visitors who would like to explore the investment potentials of Davao City particularly in the area of ICT, especially for business process outsourcing (BPO) location.
In fact last February, he said, the CEOs of call centers in the Philippines had their meeting here in Davao City, during which time they have been able to validate the potentials to host their facilities.
“There were two of them who really signified their interest to locate here in Davao City. Each of them will have total of at least 200 seats which will generate jobs here in our city,” he said.
