Davao de Oro to build coconut oil processing hubs for small farmers

Theprovincial government of Davao de Oro plans to establish village-type coconut oil processing centers that will be managed by the small farmer cooperatives in various areas of the province.

Rolando S. Simene, department head of the Provincial Veterinary Office, said during “Wednesdays at Habi at Kape” that there are small fabricators who can manufacture extracting machines that can produce oil at small or medium scale.

He said encouraging farmers to engage in value-adding will boost the coconut industry of the province.

“We have proposed several processing equipment for the coconut industry. I think agriculture will prosper and develop if our farmers engage in… processing.

What we intend to do is to have these kinds of equipment in the coconut sector for a village-type coco oil processing,” he said.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the Philippines produced 14,717,293.91 metric tons (MT) of coconut with husks and 14,321,201 MT of mature coconuts in 2021.

Out of this total, Davao Region was the top producer in the country with an output of 1,983,241.63 MT of coconuts with husks and

1,975,891.05 MT of mature coconuts.

Simene said this project would enable farmers to process raw coconuts without shelling out huge sums on their part to establish and operate costly processing facilities, which only big businesses could afford.

He said the benefit of establishing coconut oil processing centers would also have a snowball effect on the flourishing livestock and poultry industries in

DBP nets P5.6B in 2022, up 50%

State-owned lender Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) saw its full-year bottom line grow by 50% last year, on the back of higher lending activities amid the full reopening of the economy from the pandemic.

In a statement, DBP said it posted a net income of P5.61 billion in 2022 from P3.74 billion in 2021.

The lender said its financial performance last year was attributed to an increase in loan volume and interest income combined with prudent man- agement of interest expense in spite of the rise in loan loss provisioning.

“This resurgent financial performance of DBP enhances its inherent strong capacity to support the national government’s goal of promoting sustainable and equitable economic growth in the country, through the provision of vital financial support to various socio-economic initiatives, particularly on infrastructure development,” said DBP president and chief executive officer Michael de Jesus.

The state bank’s total loans grew 12% to P527 billion, from P469.40 billion recorded in 2021, with the bulk of releases amounting to P297.14-billion channeled to projects in the infrastructure and logistics sector, which represent 56% of its total loan portfolio.

Meanwhile, DBP’s outstanding loan portfolio in 2022 amounted to P105.91 billion for projects under the social infrastructure and community development sector, and