NMC-CREES to teach processing of agri products

The Northern Marianas College Cooperative Research, Extension & Education Services will kick off a free, two-day workshop today on the processing of two agricultural products.

Acting NMC-CREES associate director and workshop presentor Edgar Cocker said 62 participants have registered for the workshop as of yesterday afternoon. He said more are expected to show up at the event, to be held at the Kagman Community Center starting 8:30am today.

“The purpose of this workshop is to teach people to develop more products using local resources. There is a lot of raw material we can process and market. The idea is to substitute imports with locally processed products,” he said.

Cocker also expressed hope that participants would better understand the importance and health benefits of noni, one of the products to be featured in the workshop.

On the first day of the activity, participants will be taught how to process noni juice, tea, and capsule. Tomorrow, the workshop will focus on the processing of vegetable and da’ok oil.

The workshop is sponsored by NMC–CREES and the Commonwealth Development Authority.

In an earlier interview, Cocker said the CNMI is losing about $600,000 in potential revenues a year because of the local people’s lack of knowledge in utilizing the da’ok fruit alone. He said da’ok oil, which can be found in different areas on island, is used to make shampoo, liquid soap, skin lotion, and various other cosmetic products.

He added that setting up a da’ok oil processing facility does not cost a lot. He estimated that only about $5,000 to $6,000 is needed to purchase equipment for extraction, dehydration, packaging, and labeling of da’ok oil.

On the other hand, da’ok oil processing could be a lucrative business. The current market value of da’ok oil is at $17 per 1 fluid ounce, Cocker said.

Another potential business opportunity for farmers is the processing of juice, tea, or capsule from the noni fruit, a popular dietary supplement.

Cocker reported that NMC-CREES recently received an order from a China-based business, called Beijing Multibio Co. Ltd., for 600 bottles of noni juice, with 16 ounces each. However, the order cannot be met because there are not enough noni plantations in the Commonwealth.

“There’s a market out there for noni juice. The demand already exists; we just have to supply it,” Cocker said. “There is a lot of available land in the CNMI. If you have one acre of land, you can plant as many as 600 trees with 5 ft. by 5 ft. spacing.”

Cocker said the noni tree yields immediate benefits, as it starts producing fruit six months after being planted. Further, the noni tree generates fruit all year round.

NMC-CREES is now growing noni seedlings, which will be distributed to local farmers.