AVANT GARDENER

The textile industry can become a key player in the agriculture industry, and the Philippine Textile Research Institute (PTRI) is leading the way.

The PTRI is a research and development institute, one of seven, under the Department of Science and Technology. They conduct research and development, as well as training, capability building, and laboratory testing, among other functions related to textiles.

Part of PTRI’s mandate is to create textile technologies and license it out to adopters. They’ve recently created a technology that can convert the fibrous materials of an agricultural or forest product into what DOST-PTRI Director Celia B. Elumba describes as “a spinnable material which can then be transformed into a spun yarn, or beyond a spun yarn, can be used as an input material for non-wovens.”

This means that agricultural waste such as pineapple leaves can be used to make fabric. One of this technology’s aims is to replace cotton with a more sustainable alternative.

PTRI identified areas with strong weaving traditions (aka traditional textile manufacturers). Next, they identified the materials used by these weavers, both in modern times and before the advent of synthetic materials like polyester. This led them to wondering about what crops were grown to be used to make textile, and if it has disappeared, how can it be revived. They call this process “soil to skin.”

PTRI has so far identified 10 areas where they can build natural textile fiber innovation hubs and bamboo textile fiber innovation hubs, 20 in total. One of them manufactured by the Regional Yarn Production and Innovation Center (RYPIC) in Miag-ao, Iloilo. It doesn’t have a market name yet, so it’s called RYPIC Iloilo yarn—a nod to how area and community specific the use of this technology can get.

The RYPIC Iloilo hub was inaugurated in late 2019, four months before the Covid-19 pandemic started. But even before the pandemic shut down global operations, the center had already begun changing lives.

First of all, it meant greater competitiveness globally. While international buyers were attracted to local designs, the use of synthetic material, usually polyester, was often a turnoff. Having a source of locally made sustainable fabric would add a selling point for international clientele. But more importantly, it meant that some people who’ve had to leave Iloilo for work now had the option to stay home.

It isn't just about manufacturing the textile. PTRI’s model starts from the farm and ends with the buyer and includes academic institutions, local municipalities, the regional office of the DOST, and a marketing and distribution arm from the private sector. For RYPIC Iloilo yarn, that private partner is Panublix, an Iloilo-based company for local distribution.

Panublix takes the textile from the RYPIC facility to the 15 communities that they work with spread across Iloilo, Aklan, and the School of Living Traditions in Abra, who also supplies them with natural dyes, and turn it into a textile called Iloilo Cotton Hablon.

RYPIC Iloilo yarn is made from 30% abaca or pineapple leaves and 70% Philippine cotton, all locally grown. The pineapple leaves would have normally been considered agricultural waste. The raw materials are supplied by the Baraclayan Farmers’ Group and Iloilo Science and Technology University’s (ISATU) partner farming communities.

So far, there’s been a huge interest in tropical yarn, especially from the local knitting and crocheting communities.What needs to be done is to assure potential clients of the yar’s quality and supply.

Along with fulfilling local demand via Panublix, RYPIC Iloilo also works with Heneral Merchandise, a trading company which helps connect it to foreign markets.

Ultimately, it isn’t just about selling a product. Boosting the Philippine textile industry has the potential to positively affect many sectors, including culture, fashion, and agriculture.

But perhaps most important of all, investing in the local textile industry has the potential to offer Filipinos the choice of not having to leave their towns and provinces to find work.

“Can you imagine how much more robust the Philippine economy could be, how fewer perhaps would have to leave their provinces to work in the cities to go abroad because they already have something they can use as a means of a living in the very places where they live? That’s our hope,” Elumba says. “We have this saying, this is for Iloilo in particular—If you weave, you don’t have to leave.”