(Tempo) - The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the local government of Palo in Leyte province are partnering to make the town the coconut wine capital of the Philippines. Palo is one of the top tuba and bahalina-producing towns in the province.
Bahalina is aged tuba, a local wine from the sap of coconut (nectar from an unopened, but coconut flower). Bahalina-making is a popular industry in Eastern Visayas. The DOST is organizing Palo’s bahalina producers to sell their products in one place and make the place a tourist site. Tuba wine tasting and display of concoctions will be set up in the site, and those who visit it will see how tuba is processed into bahalina. Coconut wine is known as tuba and when it is fermented and distilled for a few months, they call it bahal. Distilled longer for one year or more, it becomes bahalina, one of the finest local wines of the Warays in Eastern Visayas, tasting like red grape wine.
The DOST provides resources through its Small Enterprises Technology Upgrading Program (SET-UP), assisting enterprises in rural communities to improve their operations, increase productivity, and reduce production costs. It guides small entrepreneurs in establishing their businesses. Municipal S&T coordinators submit proposals to assist micro, small, and medium enterprises through technology transfer, technical training, access to capital and markets, product packaging, and labeling improvement.
The annual “Octubafest” staged by the Philippine Coconut Authority and the An Waray Partylist in October every year in Eastern Visayas showcases the bittersweet tuba and bahalina as the best locally produced organic wines as well as their uses in cooking.
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