DA launches incubation facility

DA launches incubation facility

By MELODY M. AGUIBA

A natural ingredients industry that can capture part of a $ 60-billion industry globally is seen to emerge from an incubation facility launched by government Wednesday to commercialize start-up technologies.

The incubation facility is enabling government to aid micro-enterprises to tap the country’s rich indigenous resource to produce value-added pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food, and industrial goods.

DA is now coming up with a national blueprint for natural ingredients and a formation of clustering strategies of industries.

The facilities at the Department of Agriculture’s Biotechnology Business Incubation Facility (DABBIF) such as fermenting devices, centrifuge (device used in chemistry, biology, biochemistry to isolate suspensions) or autoclave (device to heat solutions for sterilization) may have just been accumulated from abandoned laboratories.

But their value is of utmost significance specially now that a national consciousness has been emerging on the presence of many plant and animal species in the country that can have huge economic value.

Aside from malunggay, the indigenous crops that hold important commercial potential are banaba, sambong, luyang dilaw, chichirica, bawang or garlic, saluyot, achuete, lagundi, mangosteen, and papaya.

A host of biotechnology initiatives by DA targets to capture a portion of international markets out of these native species. These are from various sectors including chemicals, $ 10 billion; health care, $ 8.5 billion; pollution control, $ 0.4 billion; cosmetics, $ 10 billion; medicine, $ 58 billion; agricultural applications, $ 8 billion; and food, $ 12 billion.

DA is also putting up a $ 2 million Fluid Extraction Unit which will enable the country to establish an essential oils industry.

"The country is missing the world trade export of essential oils, perfumes and flavors which is estimated to have a $ 8.2 billion (UN Trade Yearbook 1999," according to a DA Biotechnology Program report.

National Agribusiness Corp. President Alan Javellana said the BBIF will be open to any interested locator or micro-enterprise that wants to use the facilities for a certain fee.

"A venture may be small, but since we have the laboratory, it can start building its assets from very minimal costs. On their own, businesses have to acquire these facilities at a cost in millions," Javellana said in an interview.

DA’s Biotechnology Program estimated that malunggay alone, used for food fortification and industrial processing , can generate a net income of P600,000 per hectare per year. Achuete, used as dye for food and other consumer goods can give a P250,000 per hectare per year income while papaya’s latex used for cosmetic and pharmaceutical products, can generate P100,000 per hectare per year.

The country’s importation of essential oil inputs amounts to 90 percent of the local requirement since local production only totals to three metric tons yearly.

The extraction unit will tap local essential oil raw materials from sampaguita, ilang-ilang, vertiver grass, lemongrass, mango, tomato, papaya, and other local materials.

Job generation from the essential oils industry is placed at 3,000 semiskilled and 150 skilled works. This will raise farmers’ income significantly even as lemongrass for essential oil gives a gross income of $ 6,000 per hectare to West African farmers.

While these native crops can be grown in marginalized areas, these surprisingly have higher value because of their industrial applications. DA cited that banaba leaves can be sold at P20 to P25 per kilo compared to rice’s only P11-12 per kilo and corn’s P13 per kilo.

The Philippines is recognized to have the second richest biodiversity resource in the world with flora of 13,500 species accounting for five percent of the world’s flora. And while the country has identified 25 genera of endemic plants, 700 fungi species, 790 lichens species, five to eight percent of the country’s flora remain unidentified.

Among government’s efforts to boost the natural ingredients and essential oils industry are the setting up of science-based regulations to keep purity of local plant varieties; formulation of safety and quality standards for natural ingredients manufacturing; clinical trials documenting nutritional value of crops in order to boost their markets; and strengthening of the presence of analytical laboratories to develop expertise in the analysis of bioactive ingredients.

source: manila bulletin