THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it is seeking to develop the building materials market for coconut farmers by touting coconut by-product material as ecologically friendly and low-cost.
In a briefing, Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said he is in talks with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop technologies that will efficiently incorporate coconut by-product like shells and husks into bricks and roofing material.
“This is a major innovation for the housing industry and will help us utilize our waste materials,” Mr. Piñol said.
He said engineers from the US will design a facility in the Philippines to process the materials into bricks and roofing for the benefit of farmers. Mr. Piñol also said the project’s output will be suitable for low-cost housing.
“We have a growing housing industry. We have a robust housing industry. These are cheap because they are waste materials,” Mr. Piñol said, noting that the technology being contemplated can also use waste plastic, at which the Philippines is a world leader.
“The binder is plastic, but without the coco fiber, there is nothing to bind,” Mr. Piñol said.
The project was presented to the USDA by engineers James Wheeler and Kirk Johnson who own Buskirk Engineering based in Indiana. The engineers are currently working with scientists and researchers from the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to develop building material technologies, Mr. Piñol said.
According to Mr. Piñol, houses made from coconut by-product will be earthquake-resistant.
Mr. Piñol noted that the coconut industry has not managed to diversify much from copra, which is processed into oil.
Mr. Piñol said that by 2019, he expects green coconuts from the Philippines to be available in Asian stores in the US.
The Philippines is the second-largest coconut producer in the world, next to Indonesia.
“The lucrative US market will soon be open to green coconut or ‘buko’ from the Philippines, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney revealed during a call yesterday,” Mr. Piñol said in a social media post.
“Undersecretary McKinney said that there are just a few more quarantine protocols which need to be completed before Filipino coconut farmers can start shipping green coconut to the US,” Mr. Piñol added. — Reicelene Joy N. Ignacio
