Making sugar out of coconut sap or toddy (tuba) has a big profit potential.

The technology of producing sugar from coconut toddy has been found profitable in R&D activities done jointly by the DA-Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) and the private sector with funding support from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The source of the technology is the PCA-COGENT/IPGRI Poverty Reduction Project in Coconut-growing Communities. COGENT stands for Coconut Genetic Network of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI).

Collaborator in the research project is the Linabu Coconut Farmers Association (LGPA) in Balingasag, Misamis Oriental, where the project was first implemented. The three-year project was funded by ADB through the COGENT implemented by PCA.

Other places eyed as subsequent beneficiaries of the technology are the Davao and Zamboanga coconut-growing areas.

Erlene Manojar, project leader, presented the technology at the Agriculture and Fisheries Technology Forum (APTP) held recently at the DA-Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) under the auspieces of the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR).

The coconut sap sugar technology was among "mature technologies" reported during the BAR-organized technology forum.

BAR said that with the implementation of the PCA-COGENT Poverty Reduction Project, a woman coconut farmer from Linabu, Luisa Molo, discovered the profit potential of making sugar out of coconut toddy.

Molo had attended skills training conducted by the project and she did some experimentation of her own. Subsequently, she was able to perfect her granulated coconut sugar.

"There are already private sectors interested in marketing her product abroad, thus she is increasing her volume of production. Besides her own coconut sap production, other farmers in her locality are encouraged to collect toddy from their own coconut trees to comply with the increasing demand for the product," BAR reported.

A farmer can only produce 17 kilos of sugar per month, thus group effort of the coconut farmers in Balingasag is being encouraged by the project through the cooperative marketing of the coconut sap sugar.

"This coconut sap sugar is considered natural organic product and very much sought by health enthusiasts," BAR said. "This sugar can be sold for P100 per kilo which is about three times more expensive than the ordinary sugar. The processing is purely natural, simple, and a farm-level technology."