Abacá

A probably somewhat unexpected use of bananas is that of fibers.

Abaca (Musa textilis) is a species of banana that is native the Philippines. The plant can grow to some six meters in height, though is usually half of that. The fibers are extracted from the leaf-stems and these are also known as Manilla hemp.

The fiber was originally used for making twines and ropes;, however now it is mostly pulped and used in a variety of specialized paper products including tea bags, filter paper and even banknotes. It is classified as a hard fiber, along with coir, henequin and sisal.

It is still grown as a commercial crop in the Philippines, but has been transplanted to countries as far away as Ecuador and Costa Rica.

The earliest account on the use of abaca was written by Antonio Pigafetta (circa 1491-1534), an Italian chronicler and explorer who was part of the historic voyage of Magellan to the Philippines in 1521. According to his writings, indigenous Filipinos had already been wearing clothes made of abaca fiber when the Spaniards arrived on Philippine shores. Dutch tropical agricultural estates in Dutch East India, such as Handelsvereeniging Amsterdam (HVA), grew sugar, cassave, sisal, quinine, rubber, coffee, tea, and abaca.

Abacá still has great economic importance on The Philippines and is now the traditional source of lustrous fiber hand-loomed into various indigenous textiles in the Philippines like t'nalak, as well as colonial-era sheer luxury fabrics known as nipís. They are also the source of fibers for sinamáy, a loosely woven stiff material used for textiles as well as in traditional Philippine millinery.

The latest available numbers show that in 2008, the Philippines produced almost 68,000 tons of abaca fiber plus more than 18,000 tons of abaca pulp.