DAVAO CITY — A local Cavendish banana producing company in Carmen, Davao del Norte received earlier today banana powder processing equipment from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) worth P1.87 million.
The facility, which is part of the DTI’s Shared Service Facility program, was turned over to the Diamond Farm Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Multipurpose Cooperative (DARBMUPCO).
The facilities include banana chipper, mechanical dryer elevated solar drier with net cover and hammer mill with sifter.
For more than two years, the cooperative are selling their ‘reject’ bananas to contractors that produces dried banana chips, which are then sold to companies that will process it to powder or pellets for industrial use or feeds.
DARBMUPCO Manager Juan Pelenio said that the bananas came from the cooperative’s 759-hectare plantation. He said the new facilities will be operationalized by the end of this year after they undergo capability training. (davaotoday.com)
