BY GERRY LEE GORIT
MISAMIS ORIENTAL – One of the largest cooperatives in the country based in Cagayan de Oro City is expected to start construction soon an ambitious P120-million coconut processing plant in Balingasag town.
This, after the facility owned by First Community Cooperative (FICCO) broke ground on Saturday, July 8, in a ceremony attended by officials of the company together with Misamis Oriental provincial board member Fredrick Y. Khu, the committee on agriculture chairperson.
FCOF Agri Com Chair Jose Apollo Y. Pacamalan said that the facility will have the capacity to process 60,000 coconuts per day, thus fasttracking the exchange of produce from farmers in the province.
Balingasag is a coconut-rich town along with neighboring Tagoloan, Jasaan, Lagonglong and Salay.
The three municipalities will comply the bulk of the processing plant’s clients once it starts operation by July until November this year.
But here’s the catch: farmers who will deal with FICCO must become cooperative members themselves first.
“FICCO man g’yud ang tag-iya ani so they only deal with members of their cooperative. So kamong mga coconut farmers diri sa Misor nga dili pa miyembro sa FICCO, pa-miyembro na kamo,” Pacamalan, who once served as the province’s agricultural office head, said.
The facility sits on a 5.8-hectare land in barangay San Isidro of the said town and once operational, it can produce long and short coconut fibers, coco peat, activated carbon and powder for briquettes from its shell while the fruit and juice from coconuts can produce coco meat, starch and oil.
Even Khu was impressed.
“Puwede sila makahimo og patty para sa burger nga mura g’yud og karne ang lami,” he said.
Khu said he had already met with farmers in the three municipalities so they could cope with the demand of the processing plant once it would start operating.
Initially founded as a cooperative in a Jesuit-run educational institution in 1954, FICCO has now almost 500,000 members nationwide. ###
