Manila Bulletin, April 4, 2010

ORMOC CITY (PNA) – Banana farming promises to become the next sunshine industry, thanks to the demand created by a company that has ventured into banana chips, SC Coco Global Products Inc (SCCGPI). Said company manufactures and exports coconut oil, but its diversification has benefited banana farmers as well.

Originally based in Lucena, SCCGPI went south in 2006 when coconut supply in Luzon went down.

Picking Baybay town, which is 44km south of Ormoc, as the site for its new oil mill and refinery is the most logical choice as the town has 7,000 hectares planted to coconut and a population of 1,426 coconut farmers.

Neighboring towns Javier, Abuyog and Mahaplag are also coconut country. Following the drop in orders for coco oil during the global financial crisis, SCCGPI expanded into exporting banana chips.

It turned out to be a good move as its banana chips facility now has the capacity to process 35 metric ton per eight-hour operation or 70MT on double shifts.

Converted to hectarage, that’s 10,000 hectares requirement planted extensively to bananas or 20,000 hectares per double shift.

The opportunities available include job generation in the plant with the peeling area alone employing 150 employees.