The fully mechanized Abaca Fiber Processing Facility in Sabangan, Caramoran is slated to start full operation anytime this coming January 2024, the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PhilFIDA) disclosed last week.
In an interview with the Tribune, PhilFIDA Catanduanes Provincial Fiber Officer Roberto Lusuegro said that all five stripping and decorticating machines have been installed at the facility, with their operators having completed the required training.
Caramoran Abaca Fiber Producers Cooperative (CAFPCO) will hire drivers who will man the cargo truck, four topdown tricycles and four “habal-habal” motorcycles that will be used to haul the tuxy from abaca farmers within a five-kilometer radius from the processing center.
“The initial standby operating fund of P2.7 million has already been downloaded to the cooperative,” Lusuegro bared.
It may be recalled that construction of the project in the country’s biggest abaca-producing province began in June 2021, as the first pilot project of PhilFIDA in its bid modernize the abaca tuxying process and to innovate the market for abaca.
The main function of the facility is to double the fiber yield with less time, as well as to group abaca farmers under one cooperative with a minimum of 100 members.
The P15M capital outlay for the project, which would be open 24/7, is allocated for warehouses, sleeping sheds, office spaces, trading centers, and a covered drying space.
It also includes a 16-wheeler truck and motorcycles that will retrieve abaca from the farmers in “collection hubs,” as well as deliver finished products to local processors, or for direct export.
As counterpart, the municipal government headed by Mayor Glenda Aguilar provided the one-hectare lot for the use of the PhilFIDA facility.
Another key point of the ABTSP is that its business model is designed in favor of the farmers, with the new process would entirely cutting out the middleman so that the profit would be split directly between the facility and the farmers.
Under the Abaca Freefarmers Social Enterprise (AFSE) model, a 100-hectare abaca plantation with at least 100 farmers, complemented by a fully-mechanized abaca processing facility, would produce 300 to 630 tons of first-class fiber yearly valued from P36 million to nearly P76 million, he said.
During the launching two years ago, then PhilFIDA Executive Director Kennedy Costales said that the Caramoran facility will produce 99 percent first-class, quality machine-cleaned fibers and also first-class decorticated fibers from the majority 5th to 8th class fibers that local farmers are currently producing.
This will improve the livelihood of abaca farmers in the municipality, by at least doubling their income per working day, lessening by 50 percent per day their burden in producing the fibers, and making them entrepreneurs as the abaca farmers social enterprise members, he said.
Under the agency’s development plan, the ATBSP will organize farmers into cooperatives of about 50 to 350 members or more that will produce their own abaca fibers as a group.
This will result to better quality, competitive price, and increased quantity of fibers, which will be sold directly to Grading and Baling Establishments (GBEs) and local processors.
The traditional way of abaca fiber extraction/harvesting has 12 stages but the project intends to lessen it to only six (6) steps –Topping, Tumbling, Tuxying, Tuxy Bundling, Tuxy Transporting/Hauling and Tuxy Trading /Selling – which will be done by the cooperative.
The farmer will no longer engage in hand-stripping, sun-drying, sorting and classifying, tying in hanks, bundling, carrying, and storing.
“The traditional process is very much labor intensive. This scheme will remove the burden of the abaca farmers of the other six (6) activities and just let them continue producing all the abaca tuxies they want for the day before selling it to their cooperative that same day. This project will surely increase abaca fiber production,” it was explained.
Under the scheme, the abaca farmers sell their individual abaca tuxy (the thin ribbon-like outer layer of the leaf sheath that contains the fibers) produce per harvest per day of at least 100 kilos to a maximum of 250 kilos each to their cooperative at least one or twice a week.
The cooperative then processes the abaca tuxies into uniform quality stripped fibers based on its desired abaca grades before it sells them to the GBEs.
The advantages of the cooperative scheme, PhilFIDA argues, is that it will be owned by the abaca farmers themselves, there will be no abaca trader or middlemen involved and the buying price per kilo of abaca tuxy is very flexible.
Quality of production is controlled and the cooperative can command a premium price due to guaranteed uniformity in stripping/cleaning, variety and free of foreign matter, it said.
The farmers can practically control the tempo of the game, the agency pointed out, as they can sell direct to the local abaca exporters, pulpers and manufacturers due to the quantity of the fibers and volume in storage.
No cash advances will be released to the farmers for future tuxy deliveries with cash payments made only based on actual deliveries.
The government loan to the cooperative would be paid back through an agreed percentage of sales sharing every end of the calendar year, with the cooperative having the option to go into exporting raw classified abaca fiber in bales and establish their own grocery store.
The abaca farmers will be trained, guided and assisted by PhilFIDA technicians on all aspects under the scheme, including administrative work, warehousing and fiber trading, grading and classification.