📅 2025-02-25 | ⏱️ 16:11 | 👁️ 60.1K views | 👍 7.1K likes | 💬 1.3K comments
Pea travels deep into rural Philippines to visit an abaca farmer named Kuya Julius, documenting how provincial Filipinos survive through micro-agricultural businesses. The video is part field trip, part economics lesson, showing the grueling manual labor behind one of the Philippines' most important export crops — and the gap between the country's dominance in global abaca production and the poverty of the farmers who actually harvest it.
Abaca as a globally important Philippine crop
- Abaca belongs to the banana tree family but has a darker bark than regular banana trees
- The Philippines has been producing abaca since the pre-colonial era and is the world's largest exporter, producing roughly 85% of global supply
- Ecuador is the second-largest producer, followed by Costa Rica
- Uses include banknotes (currencies worldwide use abaca fiber), textiles, ropes, sails, bags, shoes, wallets, and manila envelopes — which are literally named after Manila hemp (another name for abaca fiber)
- Pea also mentions "nipis," a sheer, almost see-through cloth made from abaca fiber, joking that if a Filipina wears it "you sure would see her nipp—"
The disconnect between the crop's value and the farmers' reality
- Despite abaca being a huge cash crop, the Philippine government doesn't take full advantage of its potential
- A few manufacturing facilities exist up north, but the rest of the abaca farmers are left to eke out a meager living doing tedious manual work by hand
- Kuya Julius has to walk about a kilometer through the jungle on foot every day just to reach his work area
Meet Kuya Julius — the abaca farmer
- 32 years old, has been farming abaca since age 16 — learned from his father
- Supports a family of six: his wife and four children
- Abaca farming is his only source of income, and he plans to do it for the rest of his life
- Trees take about 3 years to grow to maturity
- Planting is done from bulbs, not seeds — one tree produces about four bulbs, so there's a natural replenishment cycle and he never worries about running out
The harvesting and processing workflow
- Pea participates in each step, attempting (with mixed success) to do the work herself
- Step 1: Cutting the tree — Done with a machete, cut from the bottom; Pea chops one down herself and asks Kuya Julius for a job
- Step 2: Hauling — The harvested tree trunk must be carried uphill through the jungle to the processing area; Pea notes "chivalry is not dead" as Julius carries it, and calls it "a tough job for a young man"
- Step 3: Peeling the bark — The outer bark is stripped away to get to the inner layers; the good fiber has a yellowish color
- Step 4: Extracting the fiber — Done on a homemade improvised machine Julius built himself, consisting of wood and metal; you clamp the bark and pull the fiber out; Pea tries and struggles, producing some short, low-quality fiber ("yikes, I'm terrible at this")
- Step 5: Drying — Fibers are hung to dry; takes about 1 hour in full sun, but can take 2-3 days in rainy weather; dried fiber looks like a wig ("like the nearest Tarzan")
- A buyer comes directly to Julius to purchase the finished product — he doesn't have to take it to market
The economics — sobering numbers
- One abaca tree of harvestable size yields only about 1/4 kilo of fiber
- That means you need four full trees to produce one kilo
- Julius cuts about a dozen trees per day
- Abaca fiber sells for 165 pesos per kilo (roughly $3 US)
- In a good week, Julius can produce about 20 kilos
- Weekly earnings at full production: approximately 3,300 pesos (~$60 US) to support six people
- The juice from the tree is drinkable
Pea's framing of provincial life
- When you explore provincial Philippines, you see lots of people but hardly any businesses
- The answer to "what do they do all day" is usually right in their backyards — micro-businesses involving agriculture
- It doesn't make them rich, but "in many cases it's the difference between life and death"