The head of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) approved the proposal of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) for the BARMM Parliament to enact a legislation allowing the export of mature coconuts from the region.
MinDa Chairman Emmanuel F. Piñol said BARMM interim Chief Minister and Moro Islamic Liberation Front Chairman Ahod Murad Ebrahim agreed to this proposal during a meeting at the main camp of the MILF in Maguindanao.
Piñol announced the breakthrough in a Facebook post, saying this will soon make BARMM the “gateway for the export of mature and green coconuts saving farmers from the region and other parts of Mindanao from the hardships brought by very low prices of copra.”
While the export of green coconuts is now allowed by the national government, there is still a prohibition on the export of mature coconuts, a move which sought to protect local oil mills, he said.
“The acceptance by the BARMM chief of the proposal to allow the export of mature coconuts through the region will allow coconut farmers to earn the equivalent of about P32 to P40 per kilogram,” said Piñol, a former agriculture chief.
The export of mature and young coconuts, he added, will be the first attempt by the BARMM to access the export market to help its agricultural producers. Piñol said Murad told him: “This will be a great help to our coconut farmers because the price of copra now is very low.”
Since his days as agriculture chief, Piñol has been calling for the lifting of the ban on the export of mature coconuts imposed by the national government since 1985.
This is because local producers continue to grapple with the sinking farm-gate price of copra due mainly to the collapse of world vegetable prices.
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