Coco farmers to benefit from China’s coco market
NegOr has biggest produce of coco coir fiber
Coconut farmers in Central Visayas get a boost from the growing export potential of the Philippine’s coco coir fiber product to China with its wide market to implement its desertification project.
China is currently using the Philippine coco coir fiber to make their barren lands eligible for planting trees.
As the Department of Trade and Industry accelerates its efforts to expand the export entry of the Philippines’s coco products to China, over five million coconut farmers in the country will directly benefit from the move.
Aurora Lambino of the Philippine Coconut Authority bared that Negros Oriental has the biggest producers of the raw fiber material in the towns of Bacong and Guihulngan.
The Bacong coco farmers’ cooperative produces 50 metric tons of raw fiber daily and 20 metric tons everyday from Guihulngan.
The raw fiber produce of both cooperatives is also sold to the same company, says Lambino.
In Cebu, slightly over 3,000 farmers from Aloguinsan town will soon produce the raw fiber taken from coconut husks for export to China.
The raw fiber will be sold at P7/kilo to the Philippine Sodum Coco Fiber Co. based on an exclusive contract between the company and the Aloguinsan farmers cooperative.
The company that will export the raw material to China may either use the raw material into the finished coco coir fiber product or for the manufacture of mattress and furniture.
The gov’t. has lined up several activities this year to promote the country’s export of coconut products to China.
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883 placed in local, foreign jobs as of May ‘05
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) here reported that around 883 applicants from Negros Oriental have been placed in local and overseas jobs as of May 2005.
Of the total, 693 are for local jobs (including deep-sea fishing), the bulk of which are for domestic jobs in Manila, says Kenric Villaluz of the local DOLE.
Villaluz said there were 190 applicants who qualified for overseas jobs, mostly as domestic helpers in Singapore, Hongkong and Taiwan.
The number of Filipinos working abroad grew 3% to 422, 801 as of May on continued demand in overseas markets, the Labor department said.
According to DOLE office in Manila, more than 500,000 Filipinos had been placed in local and overseas jobs as of May 29, 2005, as it denied reports that the government’s job generation program had only managed to produce 87,000 jobs almost halfway through 2005.
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Livestock raisers form coop
In a bid to lower cost of livestock feeds in the province, around 30 livestock raisers in Negros Oriental have joined efforts to organize the Negros Oriental Raisers Multi-Purpose Cooperative.
According to Jaime Villaluz, Jr., in-charge of post production & marketing at the Provincial Veterinary Office, the livestock raisers, composed of hog farmers and swine raisers, will undergo a pre-membership education seminar on July 11 to 12, 2005 to be conducted by the Cooperative Development Authority at the Department of Agriculture compound in Valencia.
The two-day seminar is a requirement for the said cooperative to be registered, says Villaluz.
He explained that the cooperative’s main objective is to put up a feed mill, which will afterwards result to local processing.
The two largest groups of meat processors and hog raisers in the country have joined forces to stabilize the supply and prices of livestock products here.
The Phil. Association of Meat Processors Inc. and the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. recently signed a memorandum of understanding to launch collaborative efforts to “stabilize prices of food from livestock production through the promotion and enhancement of business cooperation between two groups.”
Livestock raisers in the province are in a tight spot when it comes to feeds and marketing due to increasing prices of commercial feeds. “Once the feed mill is put up, this will lower the cost because it is locally produced and the ingredients used are local,” Villaluz explains.
Livestock raisers are eyeing the local produce to be cheaper by at least P200/sack compared to commercial products, he added.
Villaluz added that Valencia Vice Mayor Teodoro Olasiman has offered to loan out to the cooperative the municipality’s budget for agricultural development as initial fund for the construction of the feed mill, hopefully in the town of Valencia.
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City gov’t reports peaceful Independence day celeb
The celebration of the 107th Independence Day in Dumaguete City was peaceful.
According to City Public Information Officer Andre Tumulak, there were no untoward incidents that occurred to mar the celebration attended by more than 500 government employees, teachers, veterans, barangay officials and members of civic organizations.
Love offerings made this year will go to the City Disaster Coordinating Council in view of the observation of Disaster Month this June, says Tumulak.
The nationwide celebration of Independence Day was led by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself who attended the celebration held at the Rizal Park despite weeks of continued destabilization attempts against the Arroyo administration.
The chief of the Eastern Police District likewise reported a peaceful celebration of Independence Day in his area, while Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. led city officials in the celebrating Philippine Independence during the flag raising ceremony at the Quezon City Hall grounds.
The speaker in this year’s celebration in Dumaguete City was Stacy Danica Alcantara, a 16-year old Mass Communication student at Silliman University.
Alcantara first became an author and published a book at the age of 9, and is currently a columnist at the same time actively participating in various extemporaneous speech contests and debates. She recently joined in the Asian Parliamentary Debate in Singapore, Tumulak said.
Meanwhile, the country’s remotest municipality celebrated June 12, Independence Day, free from isolation, thanks to modern technology.
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