High Value Crops: Abaca Industry in the Philippines

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This roadmap sets the direction for the Philippine abaca industry. It

encompasses industry analyses, benchmarking and supply/value chain. This

roadmap identified the potential areas intended for planting and treatment

of diseases which are the two most important factors in abaca fiber

production.

A broad range of private and public sector groups contributed to the

production of this document which sets forth new policy, capacity and

capability priorities for the Philippine abaca industry.

Coordination and analysis of the inputs, organization of the workshops,

and preparation of this document were carried out by PhilFIDA. Stakeholders’

meetings and workshops were hosted and facilitated by PhilFIDA Regional

Offices.

Where are we now?

Abaca, internationally known as Manila hemp, is endemic to the

Philippines. The Philippines dominates the global abaca trade as the country

supplies about 87.5 percent of the world’s abaca fiber requirements and

Ecuador and Costa Rica the remaining 12.5 percent as of 2016. In 2016, abaca

was planted on 180,302 hectares (ha) with production reaching 72,000 metric

tons (MT).

The abaca farm structure is classified as a small farm which is owned and

managed by individual farmers. It has an average area of 1.6 hectare for

every farmer. There are only few farms established and managed by

cooperatives or associations with areas ranging from 10 to 100 hectares.

Almost one third of the abaca areas can be found in Region V or the

Bicol Region with 52,493 hectares. The land area is comparable to combined

abaca areas of Regions XIII, XI, XII and VI. Most of the abaca areas in Bicol are

heavily concentrated in Catanduanes, comprising more than 60 percent of

the total area of the region. At present, Catanduanes is the biggest abaca

producing province contributing 35 percent of the total production, followed

by Davao Oriental with about 8.5 percent. Due to frequent typhoons in Bicol

and Leyte, there are moves by some abaca factories and investors to look for

alternative areas to plant abaca.

Exports of abaca fiber and manufacture generated an average of

US$97.1 million per year in the last ten years. Some US$84.9 million came from

abaca manufactures such as pulp, cordage, yarns, fabrics and fibercrafts. The

remaining US$12.2 million was from raw fiber exports. Europe, specifically, the

United Kingdom, is the premier destination of abaca fiber followed by Asia,

THE PHILIPPINE ABACA INDUSTRY ROADMAP 2018-2022 ii

with Japan as the leading buyer. All abaca pulp was exported for specialty

paper manufactures.

Since 1991, local pulp mills had been importing abaca and sisal fiber

from Ecuador except in 2005. The pulp processor resorted to importation to

address the deficiency in local supply of specific grades and meet buyers’

specifications.

On local benchmarking, a total of 1,000 abaca plants with a distance of

3.0x3.0m are planted to a hectare and intercropped with coconut, fruit trees

and leguminous plants. The typical farm uses suckers, corms, tissue culture

plantlets as planting materials. The good farm uses seeds, tissue culture

plantlets, suckers and corms. Care and maintenance of the plantation in

typical farming is minimal compared to good farming which is properly

managed.

Harvesting is done every six months for the typical farm and every three

to four months for the good farm. The first harvest is done on 18-24 months

after planting.

Local Benchmarking, Abaca Farming: Typical vs. Good (Qualitative Parameters)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qo6w6mchqj_D83QIBgkNC5Q2lkBRCBDO/view