The P25-million abaca fiber processing facility constructed by the Philippine Fiber Industry Authority (PhilFIDA) in Sabangan, Caramoran will be finally turned over to an abaca farmers’ cooperative this April 2024.
This was disclosed by Provincial Fiber Officer Roberto Lusuegro to the Tribune in an interview last week, adding that the event could happen after the Holy Week celebration.
Pursuant to the agency’s Abaca Tuxy Special Buying Project (ABTSP), the Caramoran Abaca Fiber Producers Cooperative (CAFPCO) would have to hire a general manager to oversee the operation, along with a cashier, a clerk, a warehouseman, fiber classifier, truck driver, eight (8) motorcycle drivers who will haul the tuxies from nearby farms using four topdown tricycles and four “habal-habal” motorcycles, and 10 utility men who will assist the operators.
It may be recalled that last December 2023, PhilFIDA Catanduanes said that all five stripping and decorticating machines have been installed at the facility, with the 20 operators having completed the required training.
The P2.7 million allocated as seed capital for the facility’s operation has already been downloaded to the cooperative, Lusuergo bared, but it cannot be utilized until the plant begins running.
PhilFIDA will provide additional working capital to the cooperative as the P2.7 million initial funding would not be enough to sustain operation past five months.
The Tribune learned that former PhilFIDA Executive Director, Kennedy Costales, who initiated the pilot project in Catanduanes, visited the plant last Feb. 7, 2024 along with two American businessmen and Governor Joseph Cua.
The foreigners are reportedly interested in setting up similar facilities in the other towns of Catanduanes in the near future.
PhilFIDA officials say that based on initial tests, the facility can process an average of 250 kilos of tuxy, the thin ribbon-like outer layer of the leaf sheath that contains the fibers, per day using all five machines.
In a test that used 56 kilos of tuxy each for manual and machine processing, it was determined that the manual process produced 6.5 kilos of “rough” fiber of the I or G class while the machine produced just more than 4 kilos of finer S2 fiber.
Lusuegro said that at even the maximum price of P65 per kilo for the I or G fiber, the 6.5 kilos produced through manual stripping would only earn P422.50, while the 4 kilos of S2 fiber would command as much as P150 per kilo in the abaca handicraft industry in the Bicol mainland or a total of P600.
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 to 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 P25M capital outlay for the project, which would be open 24/7, was 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.
During the launching two years ago, then PhilFIDA Dir. 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.
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.
Under the scheme, the abaca farmers sell their individual abaca tuxy 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.