Fida Administrator Cecilia Gloria Soriano said the agency is keen on extending technical and financial support to groups and individuals wanting to engage in the production and manufacture of raw silk and hemp in the region.
The agency is also pushing for the production of abaca in the Cordillera, saying the region's climate is favorable to the production of the crop.
Soriano said the country's present production of the fiber crops could not supply the local demand.
Abaca, a crop endemic to the Philippines, is grown in more than 10 regions in the country.
In the Cordillera, only the town of Natonin in Mt. Province is growing and manufacturing hemp from the plant.
About 900 hectares is planted to abaca in the municipality.
The abaca industry had brought in P3.66-billion export earnings for the country last year Soriano said.
She was at the Fida regional office at Wangal, La Trinidad for the opening of the area as the regional site for Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and the Ilocos and Cagayan Valley Regions.
Among the uses of abaca fibers are cordage and papers like tea bags, filter paper sausage casing, cigarette paper and other handicrafts.
The country's P1,000, P500 and P200 bills and the Japanese yen are also made up of abaca fibers, Soriano said.
About 85 percent of the abaca produced, manufactured and traded in the world, comes from the Philippines.
The remaining demand is supplied by Ecuador, the second country growing the fiber crop.
Abaca production is seen to boost the current sericulture industry being popularized in Benguet.
The raw silk produced in the province is also rated first-class.
