Sericulture

10 June 2013

My 12 year old grandson, Mathew, just got back from a ten-day vacation with his maternal grandparents in Bacolod and must have really had a grand time based on the way he excitedly related his experiences there. Aside from enjoying playing bowling, swimming (in Sipalay) and frolicking with his cousins, he also, for the first time experienced playing billiards.

He also had the opportunity to go around almost three fourths of Negros Island by car, together with his his Mamita Baby  and Grandpa George (who drove), bathed in the hot springs, went island hopping, visited Siliman University in Dumaguete City (where his dad studied), and observed the the silk worm farm in Bago City.

With his arrival, of course, came once more the “pasalubongs” (coutesy of our always gracious “balaes”), most of which came from places they visited during their island tour. Being one with a sweet tooth, I enjoyed munching the sweets and native delicacies, but the ones that really captured my interest were the items from the silk worm farm, namely the white cocoon, the organic mulberry tea, and the mulberry jam, which I understand to be products of the Negros Silk Producers Association, Inc. The tea was refreshingly good, the jam delicious, and the silkworm cocoon which is supposed to be an organic cleansing and exfoliating agent (still to be tried by my wife, Mel).

The three items reminded me of one of the projects that the Fiber Industry Development Authority had when I was still connected with the cordage company producing natural fiber ropes. Because of the nature of our operations we had close interactions with FIDA since they were the government agency that regulated our main raw material, abaca fiber, or Manila hemp. My focus on abaca then made me only nominally aware of the sericulture efforts.

Although I was aware at that time that the growing of mulberry plants goes together with the raising of silkworms, my appreciation of the project was only up to that extent. This is why I was surprised to learn that other products, aside from silk filaments, can be generated from a sericulture operation. And these are simple products, which hit me as an activity that could be made into an additional source of income for Filipinos in agricultural areas, like my hometown in Tarlac.

This thought motivated me to do a little paper research on sericulture operations both abroad and here in our country. What I found out is that the worldwide demand for silk is huge, as its use is varied and numerous (e.g. national costumes of Asian nations, consumer items, home furnishings, industrial applications, etc.), and there is a shortage in supply. It turned out that the Philippines imports from South Korea, HK and China as much as 221.6 tons per year (average over 1999-2008) of combined raw silk/silk wastes/yarns which it converts into various cloth products (e.g. pinya-seda cloth for barong tagalog, etc.).  Compared to this figure, the nation’s combined average production capacity of 8.7 tons/year average of combined raw silk/dried cocoons is very low (fida.da.gov.ph/texts_silk/ silkprofile09.rtf).

Considering just the potential of replacing the earlier mentioned imported silk raw materials would necessitate already a 25 fold increase in the Philippines’ production capacity for this type of material. And this alone opens up an opportunity for households in farming communities to tap sericulture, even if just for cocoon production at the start, as an additional source of income through the assistance, possibly, of the FIDA. Additional opportunities from downstream processes (e.g. raw silk, silk yarn and silk cloth production), particularly with respect to the international demand will materialize as the country’s knowledge and skills in sericulture and silk manufacturing matures.

Other income generating opportunities that could come from the sericulture operation could be from the production of tea and jam (from the mulberry), as well as novelty items and home decorations like the simple device for skin cleansing and exfoliating, artificial flowers, leis and corsages, etc.

Incidentally, another benefit that can be derived from the raw silk production (which is the simultaneous extraction of the continuous silk filaments from a number of cocoons while applying a slight twist, and coiling it into a skein) is the generation of a food supplement for the farming household/operator in the form of the silkworm pupae which is edible and considered as a delicacy in India, China, Korea and Vietnam.

Comments/reactions will be appreciated and can be sent through this writer’s email (sl3.mekaniko@gmail.com) or through this writer’s blog (http://mekaniko-sl3.blogspot.com).