With the international ports in Cagayan de Oro as jumping boards, exporters in Northern Mindanao finally hit the $1 billion mark in total exports last year, making it one of the few exporting regions in the country. It was not a spectacular performance though reported PHILEXPORT Cagayan de Oro during a meeting of the region’s development council. It started from a base of $300 million in 2002 which inched up yearly at a rate of 1.3 percent except in 2009 when it dived by almost half. Overall, the export industry in Northern Mindanao expanded by 56 percent in the ten-year period. Behind the performance were 190 micro to medium enterprises and 17 large exporters. The region’s 10 top export goods included coconut oil, oleochemicals, canned pineapple, raw sugar, abaca pulp and fiber, copra solvent and expeller cake, dessicated coconut, sawn lumber, sintered ore and coconut fiber, husk, peat and coir. These feats were pulled off despite a long list of obstacles that the region’s exporters presented to the regional development council in said meeting.

— Abe P. Belena, Reposted from PHILEXPORT News and Features