The country's premier fiber has come a long way from its humble beginning as raw material for our ancestor's coarse and stiff clothing as well as footwears and slippers. While the abaca is still being used for these purposes up to the present time. Its application has expanded and improved remendously, going beyond simple fibercraft to sophisiticated industrial uses. Aside from the traditional cordage application, the fiber is now a superior and important material in the pulp and specialty paper industries and is used in the manufacture of tea bags, meat/sausage casings, cigarrette paper, filter papers, currency notes, stencil papers and a host of non-woven product applications.

Abaca, scientifically known as Musa textils nee, is indigenous to the Philippines whose warm, wet climate and volcanic soils are particlurly suited to its cultivation. It has been grown in the Philippines for centuries and was known to the Filipinos long before the Spanish occupation.