By Lydia C. Pendon
Sun Star
The next important
high value crop to rise in Visayas will be
cashew as demands for the products starting from its apple and nuts are increasing every day.
This was bared by Erwin Saw of Isla Casoy de Palawan Co., an investor who poured in some P5 million in the production and manufacturing of cashew products here in Palawan province.
Saw said Palawan is producing some 90 percent of the 2.6 million fruit bearing trees in the country producing some 350,000 metric tons of the fruit and nuts every year.
Puerto Princesa City Agriculturist Melissa Macasaet said that out of 103,145 metric tons of dried cashew nuts produced every year, some 92,830 metric tons are from Palawan.
The company is buying cashew fruit and nut at P15 per kilo during the peak season or summer months and P50 per kilo during the lean months.
But this is not enough and company buyers have already started looking for more cashew nuts notably in the island province of Guimaras to add to the company’s demand.
Aside from mangoes, Guimaras is also
producing cashew and mostly in backyard plantation.
Palawan cashews are from six selected cultivators developed in the island province.
The Department of Agriculture and the city agriculture office of Puerto Princesa have jointly developed a farming system that include the sloping agriculture land technology (Salt) using cashew as base crop, intercropping with pineapples, bananas and papayas for maximum land use, rehabilitation of old cashew trees and cashew as a reforestation crop.
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