Mindanao’s yield offsets big abaca decline in Bicol

THE country’s abaca output in the first quarter grew by 4.1 percent to 14,887.1 metric tons (MT) buoyed by higher Mindanao production amid double-digit decline in output of Bicol, the country’s top producer of the natural fiber.

Latest Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (Philfida) data showed that nationwide abaca production from January to March was 585.44 MT higher than the 14,301.66 MT recorded in the same period of last year.

Philfida data showed that increased abaca production in Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, Western Visayas and Caraga offset the decline in output in eight other regions, including Bicol.

Philfida data showed that abaca output in Bicol, the country’s topproducing region, fell by 12.5 percent to 5,463.36 MT from 6,244.56 MT as it reeled from the devastation caused by Typhoon Rolly last year.

Philfida data showed abaca production in Davao Region, the country’s second top producer of the natural fiber, expanded by

31.9 percent to 3,037.52 MT from 2,303.05 MT last year.

Abaca production in Northern Mindanao rose by 95.5 percent to 1,788.05 MT from 914.71 MT last year; while production in Caraga increased by 2.9 percent to 1,562.92 MT, based on Philfida data.

“Abaca production in these regions have been continuously increasing as farmers are concerned about their plantations unlike in other provinces where farmers still have a plant-and-forget mentality,” Philfida Executive Director Kennedy T. Costales told the Businessmirror.

“Abaca diseases in these regions are not rampant and are not frequently affected by typhoons. Also, varieties planted in these regions like in Davao are high-yielding that could grow to as high as 6 meters,”

Costales added.

Costales said the continuous increase in abaca production outside Bicol is also a result of the government’s expansion of abaca farms nationwide, outside usual areas like the Bicol region.

Costales said they plan to expand abaca plantation by 2,300 hectares this year on top of the 800 hectares that they plan to rehabilitate.

The Businessmirror earlier reported that the country’s abaca output this year is seen to further decline from last year’s 7-year-low as the industry reels from devastation caused by Typhoon Rolly (international name Goni), particularly in Catanduanes, the top producer of the natural fiber. (Related Story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/03/16/ abaca-yield-seen-to-dip-further-in-2021-p171-million-rehab-ongoing/)

Costales, in an earlier interview, said they are implementing a P171million rehabilitation and expansion program for the abaca industry this year.

“We are doing everything to rejuvenate the industry and in two years’ time we will return to the 70,000-MT production level or even exceed that volume,” he said.

Documents obtained by the Businessmirror showed that Philfida plans to plant abaca on 1,100 hectares this year across 11 provinces.

Costales said they will put up abaca “plantations”

in each of the identified provinces, with each plantation being contiguous and having an average size of 100 hectares.

Catanduanes is excluded from the P50million expansion program of the Philfida since it will have its own P121-million rehabilitation program.

Costales said the P121-million program for Catanduanes can rehabilitate about 8,000 hectares in the province.