THE United Coconut Association of the Philippines (UCAP) will take part in the upcoming World Coconut Congress, as it seeks to tackle both supply and demand issues in the coconut industry.
UCAP President Dean A. Lao, Jr. in a press conference in Quezon City said the congress will provide a venue for stakeholders to develop their marketing and innovation strategies and for farmers to improve their practices.
Through the congress, Mr. Lao also said they “will try to find as much value-added market as [they] can.”
“Because a lot of the branding is done overseas, we want to bring it here. We want to encourage the people to be aware of [other local companies] who are doing a good job…” he told BusinessWorld.
UCAP Managing Director Marco C. Reyes said the industry should focus on improving raw materials and developing a marketing strategy to increase the earning capacity of the farmers.
“[Filipino coconut farmers] have the lowest yield [compared to other countries] at 46 nuts per tree a year. To increase the yield is to increase the income of our farmers,” he added.
“There is [also] demand from other countries [for what] we call emerging and non-traditional products. It offers very wide opportunities [so] we want to develop these products,” Mr. Reyes said.
UCAP Executive Director Yvonne T. V. Agustin said they expect coconut oil exports to reach almost 1 million metric tons (MT) this year.
Data from the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service projected that the country’s coconut oil exports are set to grow 3% by 2019, brought about by better copra supply and substitution.
In the first half of the year, Ms. Agustin said exports so far have reached around 414,000 MT. She said this is because of the new demand in emerging markets.
“Our main market is still the US and Europe. They account for 80% of our markets. But other markets are growing like Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia,” Ms. Agustin said.
“These [exporting countries] could be facing their own shortage so they have to buy from us. Maybe they re-export it or process it for themselves.”
Philippines Coconut Authority Division Chief III Rose B. Villaruel said the local coconut industry should not be too dependent on the export market. — A.G.A. Mogato
