DAVAO Oriental has been known as the coconut capital of the country.

With thousands and thousands of hectares planted with coconut, the province also produces tons and tons of coconut husks, coco water and coco shells that are usually considered by coco farmers as "wastes."

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But with the hard times, entrepreneurs of the province have come up with ways on how to turn these wastes into gold.

Now coming into the picture is the Mati Cocofiber Technology owned and operated by Davao Oriental Board member Eric Rabat. Just two years in the business, the youngest son of former governor and former Mati mayor Francisco G. Rabat said they discovered new uses of what used to be coco wastes and are earning from it.

Though their main product is coco fiber coming from the coconut husks, other byproducts of their production are the short coco fibers that are made into mattresses and pillows, as well as the coco dusts or coco peat that are used as growth medium or replacement for soil.

From wastes to gold

The process in making coco husks into fibers is very easy actually, with the help of the machines.

They usually buy husks from coco plantations and load them to a truck for transport to their main production plant in Dahican.

"We usually buy the coco husks from plantations at P200 per truck with an approximate content of 6,000 husks per load. We do the hauling na. Dati kasi ay sinusunog na lang nila yung mga coconut husks na ito," Rabat said.

The husks are then fed to a machine that grinds them to fibers. With a decorticating machine, the long fibers are separated from the short fibers and the coco peat.

The long fibers are then sun-dried before they are fed into a bailing machine that now compresses the long fibers and made into geo-textiles.

Geo-textiles are used as anti-soil erosion in many parts of world especially in China where Rabat usually exports his products.

Bio-organic foams and pillows

Rabat said there is a rising trend now in the modern industry on the use of organic materials.

Like for example in pillows and beds, he said there is a growing demand for coco short fibers as replacement for the foam.

"This is because coco fibers are organic at di basta-basta nasisira. It will really last long unlike the foam," Rabat said.

Rabat tapped a women organization in Dahican that would produce the pillows and mattresses out of the coco fibers.

He sells short coco fibers to the women's group at P4 per kilo. The fibers are then made into pillows and sold at P60 each. They call their product as Sanfran pillows because the women reside in Purok San Francisco.

Rabat said he started their pillow production in June 2009 and at present, they have already sold several. He said he plans to donate pillows to the provincial hospital as well.

Soon, they will go into production of mattresses.

Going strong

At present, the coco coir plant produces 50 tons per month of coco fibers. Rabat said their target is to produce 70 tons per month by the end of this year.

His plant employs 50 people, with most of them earning at least P200 per day.

Danilo Montebon, 47-years-old and a former tricycle driver, said he has been working with the coco coir plant for more than two years now. Back as a tricycle driver, he earned from a low of P50 to as high as P300 per day.

He said his work at the coir plant is way better than being a tricycle driver. With his wife's salary as a teacher and his combined, Montebon said they were able to support their six children to school.

Rabat said that during summer, they also employ students who wanted to earn money for their schooling.

He said he will be putting up another plant soon that will produce coco fertilizer. He said he already had forged an agreement with an interested partner that will give more jobs to more people.

Rabat said the coconut industry has been affected by many "uncontrollable" factors, especially so that there is a global economic crisis. He said that the only way to stabilize the coco industry is with the value added products. (BOT)