IN exchange of imparting waste-to-energy related knowledge to the Dabawenyo delegates, the city government of Kitakyushu in Japan is interested to import cacao and eels from Davao City.
“Since we cannot help them with solid waste management because they are more modernized, what they want to check out in the city is the cacao because chocolate is a big industry in Japan. Also, Kitakyushu City have their own chocolates,” said Davao City mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on the sidelines of the 39th anniversary celebration of NCCC Supermarket.
She added the Kitakyushu government is also interested in Unagi, or the freshwater eel. The mayor said an eel farm is currently operating in Toril and they are considering visiting that to see possible partnership.
“The challenge here is they want bulk supply. They will have to look around the city if the suppliers will be able to sustain the demand,” she said adding that this interest of Kitakyushu to import cacao and freshwater eels from Davao City stemmed out from the green sister city agreement between Davao City and Kitakyushu City. This agreement is expected to start generation of environmental-related projects between the two cities. However, during the discussions with the Kitakyushu mayor, Duterte-Carpio said projects formulated also developed into that of agricultural partnerships as well.
By next year, the mayor said contingents from Kitakyushu City will come to look at the eel and cacao farming in the city.
Waste-to-energy tour in Japan
Ten representatives from Davao City were sent on a weeklong observation of the Japanese implementation of the waste to energy plant in Kitakyushu City from November 26 until today, December 2.
The mayor herself was present during the first few days of the visit and said they were toured around a waste to energy plant and their questions about the technology were answered as well.
“Our representatives present will write their report of what happened, include their observation and recommendations,” the mayor said.
On an earlier published report, she said the visit does not yet indicate that the city government will already allot funds from the city’s budget for the construction of a waste to energy plant.
“If we can already receive the note, document, or letter from the government of Japan that they have interest for a WTE in the city, that’s the only time we can be certain because for now, we do not plan to allot money in our budget to build a WTE plant,” the mayor earlier said.