NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Members of the Lawa Workers Multi-Purpose Cooperative established the first village-level coconut oil processing mill worth P2.870 million in Barangay Lawa, Don Marcelino, Davao del Sur to help alleviate poverty in the municipality.

The cooperative built the Lawa Integrated Coconut Processing Plant with the assistance of the United Nations Development Program-Support for Agrarian Reform Development for Indigenous Community, Land Bank of the Philippines, and Department of Land Reform.

The plant can process 10,000 nuts or the equivalent of 2,250 kilos of copra per sixteen hours (two shift) operation into 1,140 kilos or 1,239 liters of refined, bleached and deodorized cooking oil as the main product and 680 kg. copra cake daily as one of its by-products.
Story found here.