Green is the color usually attributed to environment but for some, green is money-"dollars. For most of the companies today, going green is their roadmap; generate money at minimal or no environmental expense.
Filcoco Ventures Inc., for one, generates income by buying the coconut wastes of farmers.

Humberto Alido still remembers his father’s description of the coco fiber processing during their time. “Pinupukpok lang nila para maextract ang fiber” (They are just pounding the husk to extract the fiber). That was the practice decades ago, but now , he is observing a mechanized system of coco fiber production.

‘Bert’, as he is fondly called by his friends and colleagues, is the regional manager of Filcoco Ventures, Inc., a private company engaged in coconut by-product processing based in Quezon province. They are exporting coco coir products to United States of America and China. Their export venture started years ago.

Untangling the dollars in the coco coir

Coco coir is the fibrous material in the coconut husk or between the outer covering and the shell. Through processing, one can harvest coco fiber and coco peat from it. The coco peat, also known as coir pith or coir dust, is the spongy lightweight particle which falls out when the fiber is separated during the extraction of coconut fiber.

These by-products are being used in both agricultural and industrial sectors. The fiber is utilized in making rope, mattress, car seats and other cushions, coco nets as a preventive solution for soil erosion, and many more. Meanwhie, the coco peat is now becoming popular for its horticultural uses such as substrate and medium in hydroponics system.

From wastes to mattresses

Traditionally, farmers throw the coconut husks after harvesting the meat or copra from the fruit. “Hindi nga lang waste, but pollutant, dahil sinusunog nila ito, itinatapon sa ilog o sa dagat,” says Bert. But now, through the establishment of the coco coir industry, coconut farmers have now the chance to earn money from their wastes. “Pero ngayon, nabibili na namin ang kanilang mga waste material sa mas mataas na halaga,” (But now, we can now buy their waste material at a reasonable price) he added.

“We are the company that buying the costliest raw materials. We are paying 55 to 60 centavos per piece when delivered while our competitors are paying much lesser,” the Filcoco Regional Manager revealed.
Aside from the additional income to coconut growers, the Filcoco helps the local community by giving employment to the grassroots and additional revenue to the government.

Everyday, hauling trucks of the company is buying about 120,000 pieces of coconut husk each from their two plants in the towns of Catanauan and Gumaca.
The husks will undergo on a decorticator to extract the fibers and peat. The fibers will be dried until the desired moisture content is achieved. Then these will be baled quadrangular with 100 kilograms each. All the operations are mechanized. At their Gumaca plant, there are two decorticators, two units of PHilMech flatbed dryer, and several units of their own-designed sieving machine cum rotary dryer. All their dryers are using the PHilMech Multi-fuel biomass furnaces.

At the end of the day, they produce averaging to 12 metric tons of coco fiber ready for export.
Turning coco peat into dust of gold
While producing a huge amount of fibers daily, a huge amount of coco dusts were also fallen. This coco fiber processing by-product is another good source of income when properly processed because of the high demand in the export market.

In a study of Dr. Manolito C. Bulaong (retired R&D director), Engr. Andres M. Tuates, and Shiela Marie Villota of PHilMech, they said that statistics show that India and Sri Lanka are the top coco peat exporters in the world. Interestingly, India has only one million hectares of coconut plantation while Sri Lanka is just as big as Bicol Region while the Philippines has a total plantation of 3.3 million hectares.

Back in 2009, when Filcoco ventured in coco peat processing, they found out that the industry is lacking of good processing equipment such as dryer. This is the reason why the company sought technical assistance from PHilMech for the drying of the coco peat.

According to the team of Dr. Bulaong, sundrying is the common practice of drying coco peat in India and Sri Lanka which takes about three to four days. However, they observed that there is low probability of success on sundrying in Quezon province because of its type 4 climate.

In a partnership with Suki Trading, a PHilMech accredited manufacturer of the multi-fuel biomass furnace, the company had able to assemble the rotary drying system based on the design and specifications given by PHilMech. Though there are available dryers in the market, these are very expensive.
Months after, the Filcoco already made their first delivery of coco peat blocks in the USA.

Defying the industry challenges

The unstable price of coco fiber and peat in the market affects their financial resources. However, the Regional Manager said that they are now finding ways and strategies to remain their spot in the competitive market. “Before the selling price in the market is more than US $300/ metric ton but now it is much lesser,” Bert revealed.

He also said that, the production cost is too high compared to other countries. Top on their list are the electricity and transportation costs. “Company same as ours are closing. But (us in Filcoco), we are looking for systems that would reduce our operating and production cost,” he added. “We had tripled our production and also we are lucky that we had already delivered some coco peat”. “Next year, we are now concentrating our decorticating activities in Catanauan and this (Gumaca) plant will be for fiber drying and packing, and coco peat processing. The terrain in Catanuan is more conducive for hauling coconut husk in the field than in Gumaca which is hilly,” Bert discloses.

Bert also shared the company’s bright idea of producing products made of coco fiber and coco peat but this still in their pipeline.

Resilient Coconut

With their new strategies, the Filcoco management believes that they will survive to give sustainable and environment-friendly source of income for the Filipino communities. They may be young in the industry but the Fillcoco is as resilient as the coconut tree.