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A BRIEF HISTORY OF RAMIE
ramie fiber and the importation of ramie goods processed from 100 per cent Philippine ramie fiber.”
To hasten the operation of the ramie factory, President Carlos P. Garcia, on March 28, 1958, directed Central Bank governor Miguel Cuaderno to issue ₱1 million to fund the speedy completion of the mills in Davao operated by the National Development Company (NDC).
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The building of the mill was authorized under a P8-million bond issue, with P3 million advanced by the NDC from its operating capital. To finish the construction, the NDC sealed a financing plan with the Republic Finance Corporation (RFC), which in turn requested the Monetary Board for the release of the amount needed for the undertaking.
On October 1, 1961, President Diosdado Macapagal, his wife Eva Macaraeg, and high of-ficials flew to Davao to inspect the DARATEX plant in Daliao, Toril. It was given a capitali-zation of P12 million and was jointly operated by the NDC, Alcantara & Sons Plywood Fac-tory, and the Tagum Agricultural Development Company, Inc. (TADECO).
On March 11, 1964, Macapagal returned to the 24-hectare DARATEX complex from his tour of Cotabato Province and ate breakfast with the Malacañang press corps, escorted by acting press secretary Virgilio Reyes.
After the complex shut down in the mid-1960s, efforts to revive the industry in Davao were being proposed. But the production of ramie fiber for use in textiles did not take off. As a result, the DARATEX complex was left to the elements and finally reclaimed by vegetation.
In 1968, the government offered to private buyers the sale of DARATEX mills but there were no immediate takers given the previous experiences the investors had in the acquisition of other state firms which resulted in the walkout of personnel due to forced layoff after the takeover.
On September 18, 2018, Davao Food Terminal, an idea hatched six years earlier, was launched with a thrust of creating an agricultural economic processing zone that would spur livelihood and economic opportunities. The terminal is a marketplace for trading vegetables, the first in Mindanao, with its first structure built on a 3,700-square-meter lot within DARA-TEX, which was originally a workshop for clothing materials produced from ramie fibers.
