Today, a virtual Philippine monopoly in the world market, abaca has metamorphosed from its traditional role as rope and paper known simply as Manila hemp into anything from high fashion to composite fiberboards that are being eyed for Mercedes Benzes.
Fashion czar Patis Tesoro sells intricately embroidered barong made of abaca sinamay for P12,000 a piece. The Japanese know it as makawira, the rope tied around posts used in martial arts practice.
Its superior tensile and folding strength and high porosity makes it especially suitable for currency paper (20 percent of the peso, 70 percent of the Japanese yen), furniture, home decor, textiles, cosmetics, cigarette papers, surgical masks, even sausage casings, tea bags, coffee filters and so much more.
"There is much history, and so much future for abaca," says Dr. Emil Javier, who heads the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST).
The Philippines accounts for most (83.7 percent) of world production of abaca fiber, a commodity that contributes an average of $76.8 million a year from exports of raw fibers, pulp, cordage and fiber crafts.
"New markets are awesome for this original Philippine product," says Rep. Luis R. Villafuerte (2nd district, Camarines Sur). "But its present state is in the doldrums, although encouraged by new interest."
Only two countries deal in abaca products, one of them Ecuador, a far second to the Philippines. Indonesia is a small producer but a potentially major competitor given its large rural labor.
"Indonesians, with Filipino consultants, are now planting heavily and has plans that could displace the Philippines. Soon enough they’ll learn, so we better work forward and give the highest priority to abaca," says Villafuerte.
"We must shift from subsistence to intensive abaca farming," says Javier, a former secretary of science and technology. "Abaca is competing for land and labor, with other fibers and other countries. At the same time, farmers should earn more."
More than 77,500 Filipino farmers and 143,420 workers and strippers grow abaca in about 127,258 hectares, a third of them in Eastern Visayas, Bicol and Southern Mindanao.
These provinces produce 78,000 metric tons a year valued at over P6 billion. By 2020 — when farms expand to 32,600 hectares — abaca fiber production nationwide will reach 152,000 metric tons.
Fiber yield is expected to increase from 565 kilograms per hectare per year to 900 kg/ha/yr. This requires an investment of P330.9 million during the first five years, according to the Fiber Industry Development Authority.
"The industry must make a strategic decision whether to remain as a low input, low-income subsistence crop or shift to more intensive agriculture," points out Dr. Ruben Villareal who headed a committee of NAST experts that evaluated the industry.
Today, abaca extraction is 80 percent manual, and only one percent of the fiber is recovered. But even with simple mechanization — like using a portable decorticating machine which costs about P45,000 — fiber extraction could increase up to three percent.
"Abaca must be made more profitable to the small farmers who grow them. Otherwise, it will be displaced by more profitable crops and rural enterprises and will be pushed farther and farther into the hinterlands on steep slopes and marginal soils," says Villareal, formerly the chancellor of the University of the Philippines Los Banos.
Javier, Villafuerte and Villareal are pushing for a makeover of the product and for very good reasons.
From 1995 to 2004 alone, abaca contributed an average of $76.8 million to the economy. Abaca fiber ranks ninth among the country’s major agricultural exports — after coconut oil, banana, pineapple, tuna, shrimps, tobacco and desiccated coconut.
Aside from fiber, abaca pulp and cordage are exported to the United Kingdom (45 percent), Japan (31 percent) and the United States (19 percent). For pulp, Germany (40 percent) is the main market followed by Japan (32 percent) and theUnited Kingdom (13 percent). Principal buyers of cordage are the US (68 percent), Singapore (5 percent) and Canada (3 percent). - InterNews&Features