The Coconut Heebie-Jeebies
Things are far from rosy in the coconut industry this year. Recent newspaper reports describe the sector as imperiled, tense and troubled. This heebie-jeebies state has recently been confirmed by administrator Oscar Garin of the Philippine Coconut Authority in a recent press conference attended by agri-journalists. In the said meeting, Garin reveals that the country’s coconut output is seen to fall by 12%. Last year’s coconut output was recorded at 2.47 MT, while this year’s output is projected at 2.17 MT.
Moreover, the costly fertilizer program, dogged down by previous government controversies, is also seen to affect the industry since funding became difficult during this election year.
Contributing to this slow production output is the series of typhoons which devastated the country’s coconut growing areas in late 2006, which resulted in a significant reduction in coconut exports this year. Garin said about 300,000 hectares of coconut farmlands were affected during last year’s typhoon months, with 200,000 hectares severely damaged.
Exacerbating this coconut imbroglio is the massive effect of the Coconut Leaf Beetle (CLB), an introduced pest of coconut which, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA), has now invaded 18 out of 79 provinces throughout the country (14 in Luzon, 1 in the Visayas, 3 in Mindanao). A recent DA press release said “since its discovery in Airport Rd., Pasay City in 2005, it has spread both to the northern and southern provinces, infesting more than 70,000 tall and 5,000 small coconuts with undetermined number of affected ornamental plants.”
Because of these, Garin further reported that PCA projects a significant reduction in coconut product exports this year. Coconut oil, for one, is projected to decline by 23% to 1.566 million MT from last year’s 2.034 MT. He added that coconut oil exports are projected to go down 40% to 780,000 MT from 1.070 million MT in 2006. Meanwhile, desiccated coconut export is seen to drop to almost 16% to 115,000 MT from last year’s 136,200 MT.
But despite these declining projections, Garin and his staff are confident that the coconut industry would rise above its current hurdles. For one, the slow coconut output could he offset by way of increased prices in so far as the demand side is concerned. Historically, the PCA administrator said that CNO export volume with less than one million MT command higher prices compared to a volume higher than that. “By 2007, we expect a substantial increase in coconut oil price. In fact, we’re projecting our coconut oil export to be around 780,000 MT,” Garin disclosed.
In response to the situation, Garin revealed that PCA plans to fertilize some z82,ooo hectares of coconut farms for four consecutive years. This will hopefully offset the CNO requirement for biodiesel production by
