During the first eight months of the year, Fida figures showed that abaca pulp remained as biggest abaca dollar earner among abaca products, with earnings reaching almost $72.7 million, or 62.1 percent higher than the revenues posted in January to August 2010. Abaca pulp shipments accounted for 73.6 percent of abaca earnings for the period.
Producers of abaca cordage increased their revenues by 13.2 percent to $11.54 million. The product accounted for 11.7 percent of total earnings from abaca products in eight months.
Export receipts from abaca fibercraft also went up by 11 percent to $4.12 million. Abaca-fibercraft shipments accounted for 4.2 percent of total earnings for the period.
Producers of abaca fabrics saw revenues increase by 45.6 percent to $714,460. The product accounted for 0.7 percent of total export receipts from abaca.
The value of raw fiber exports increased by 16.1 percent to $9.63 million.
Because of the increase in demand for abaca in foreign markets, abaca farmers produced more of the commodity in January to September this year. Production went up by 20 percent to 45,061 metric tons (MT), or 360,494.3 bales of 125 kilograms.
The Bicol region remained the biggest producer of abaca at 16,950 MT, almost 32 percent higher than what it produced in January to September last year. It accounted for 37.6 percent of total output for the period.
The second biggest producer of abaca was Eastern Visayas at 10,270 MT, 3.8 percent higher than what it produced last year. The region accounted for 22.8 percent of total production.
The Davao region was the third biggest abaca producer at 5,008 MT, 6.7 percent higher than what it produced in January to September 2010. The region’s share in total output was 11.1 percent.
Earlier, Fida supervising statistician Mystic Pelayo said local abaca producers and processors could increase their earnings by 15 percent to $120.2 million on the back of a hike in the demand for abaca pulp and cordage in the Philippines’s major markets.
Last year local producers and processors earned $104.525 million from shipment of various abaca products including fiber, pulp and cordage.
In terms of volume, the Philippines shipped out 11,293 MT of abaca fiber; 20,879 MT of abaca pulp; and 6,955 MT of cordage in 2010.
Fida, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, also projected that abaca production could increase by 10 percent to 62,000 MT as farmers plant abaca to meet the hike in demand in major foreign markets this year.
(Jennifer Ng)
