Farmers from Canaman carve out business niche through abaniko with a twist

January 20, 2017

For a while, the “abaniko” or the Pinoy hand-held fan made of anahaw (an indigenous leaf), forms the mass of things that symbolize Philippine culture and attire.

But, recently a group of abaniko producers in a landlocked municipality of Canaman, Camarines Sur thought of innovating the traditional abaniko to increase their income and explore other uses of plastic wastes from the community.

The innovation, symbolic of the town’s indigenous resilience, began as a project of a Japanese volunteer Nozomi Akai sent to Canaman as part of the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) program to support Canaman’s community development.

“Garbage segregation, waste management and low household income are challenges in Canaman. My role is to help get the peoples’ interest in decreasing plastic waste while also helping the abaniko producers increase their income through product innovations,” said Akai who currently works with Canaman’s Municipal Agriculture Environment and Natural Resources Office (MAENRO).

Abaniko is Canaman’s One Town, One Product (OTOP) providing jobs to nearly 100 families.

Through a so-called Canafan Project, the abaniko is redesigned into souvenir bags using materials like anahaw, and buri.

Experimentation is on-going for possible integration of the recycled plastics in the products as accents, accessories or functional part.

At present, Akai works with a family of abaniko producers in Canaman supplying the items to non-government groups in Naga and Legazpi cities as well as in a major Filipino souvenir outlet in Makati.

“We are happy to discover a new way to make abaniko saleable without having to rely on microfinance lending. We are proud of our Canafan project and we hope to get continued support from the Department of Trade and Industry and other organizations to market it,” said Marilou V. Castor, an abaniko bag maker. DMS