Getting high on Kapangan silk
By Delmar Cariño
Northern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 00:03:00 05/12/2008
KAPANGAN, Benguet- Fabric makers are starting to notice this town's rare quality silk but local officials and industry stakeholders said farmers and cocoon raisers were not yet ready to supply bulk buyers.
The demand for the town's silk had surpassed current levels of production and Mayor Robert Canuto said this was because the industry was still in its growing stage.
"Our silk industry is still in its formative years. But we expect it to bloom in the next two to three years," he said.
Canuto is confident of the industry's future after the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) and Gov. Nestor Fongwan pledged financial assistance to complete the needed cocoon rearing houses.
The town and the provincial fiber office were also negotiating for the transport of a reeling machine from San Fernando City in La Union that could spin two to three tons of silk in one workload.
Lately, businessman Jack Dulnuan, owner of the Jack's Restaurant chain in Benguet and Baguio City, bought five hectares of land in this town to be planted with mulberry.
"We didn't expect that our town's reputation as the silk producer of the Cordillera would spread that fast," Canuto said.
He said the town needs around 300 ha for mulberry production in the next three years to meet the demand from fabric shop owners and textile companies.
Fe Donato, provincial fiber development officer, said the town has only 8.25 ha devoted to mulberry cultivation.
"We need wider mulberry plantations to become commercially competitive," she said.
But the quality of silk that the town produces has already won the attention of a curious market, which in effect, has inspired more farmers to go into cocoon raising and mulberry cultivation.
"The silk's quality has become the town's built-in comparative advantage," Donato said.
Buyers from Kalibo, Aklan, for instance, bought 8.5 kilograms of silk in February.
Now, they want to be supplied at least 50 kg of raw silk a month which the town could not produce, Canuto said, since maximum monthly production is only 13 kg.
The town, which adopted silk as its "One Town, One Product," produced 265 kg of fresh cocoons in 2005, 391 kg in 2006 and 401 kg in 2007.
But business prospects aside, silk production here became doubly significant because it helped break the town's image as a major source of marijuana in the country.
Kapangan, Kibungan and Bakun used to be called the "Golden Triangle" because of unhampered marijuana cultivation.
Local officials decided to embark on a massive crop alternative program for marijuana farmers by offering cutflowers, yacon, anthurium and mulberry as substitutes.
"The cutflowers were a little bit okay, save that it could not really penetrate corporate buyers," Canuto said.
But the root crop yacon, which the Philippine National Police (PNP) pushed to eradicate marijuana, was the greatest disappointment after farmers found out that it was not a practical substitute, Canuto said.
"The market was not responding. Farmers also complained that yacon was too heavy to carry from the farms to the market. The root crop was considered medicinal but its popularity simply waned," he said.
Canuto said anthurium suffered the same fate.
"There were buyers but local varieties commanded low market value, thus enticing only a few farmers," he said. "But thanks to mulberry and silk, the town can now be declared marijuana-free," Canuto said.
Today, more farmers have expressed intention to join the Kapangan Environmental Livelihood Multi-Purpose Cooperative and be included among the 72 farmers who would benefit from the completion of 20 rearing houses for more than 40,000 silkworms.
The silkworms, Donato said, would feed on mulberry leaves and then later spin raw silk.
Donato said 500 to 600 cocoons, with a combined weight of 10 kg, could produce a kilogram of raw silk. Around 3 to 3.5 kg of silk is needed to make one barong Tagalog.
Kapangan silk raisers sell their barong Tagalog at P2,900 apiece.
Sabado Elis, a farmer from Cuba village, said he could earn P4,500 in 18 to 22 days by simply raising cocoons to be sold at P800 a kilogram. He earns 25 centavos for each pencil-sized mulberry cutting, which meant he would get as much as P5,000 if he could produce 20,000 pieces.
The town's silk industry is still young in terms of production because the areas devoted to mulberry are just enough, local officials said.
Only nine of the town's 15 villages piloted cocoon production-Pudong, Cabilisan, Cuba, Datakan, Labueg, Taba-ao, Bolinsak, Pongayan and Cadtay.
The 20 rearing houses were completed after DDB and Dole gave P1 million each in financial assistance. The Fiber Industry Development Authority (Fida) provided technical support.
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