President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. is eyeing to boost the country’s coconut exports by accelerating the modernization efforts of the coconut industry.
“There is no reason why the Philippines should not be the biggest producer of export in terms of coconut products,” the President said during the 50th anniversary celebration of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) last Thursday.
He instructed the PCA to intensify its implementation of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan, which aims to boost the competitiveness of the country’s coconut industry by improving the capacity of farmers and the use of new technology and facilities.
Efforts to boost the productivity of the local coconut industry includes replanting old and unproductive coconut trees and planting of coconut seedlings as well as the establishment of mills and other post-production facilities to process coconut by products.
Currently, Marcos said the Philippines is a major exporter of coconut oil and other products, such as copra meal and desiccated coconut.
“We will no longer export the raw material, which will then be processed in other countries. Then later on we will buy the end product,” Marcos said.
“We cannot allow this very, very grand opportunity for our farmers to slip by. And we have now come to the point where we have been looking at the coconut industry as an industry. And it is now time to revitalize that economy,” he added.
The efforts, he said, will also help make the coconut industry resilient to emerging threats such as effects of climate change, pests, and diseases.
“So, let us double our efforts to tackle these issues and invest in technologies and initiatives that will not only safeguard but also ensure the resilience of the coconut sector of our agriculture,” Marcos said.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported coconut production increased to 3.26 million metric tons (MMT) during the first quarter of the year, from 3.20 MMT in the same period in 2022.
However, government data showed the country’s coconut exports still declined by more than half from $1.04 billion in January to April 2022 to $490.16 million in the same period in 2023.
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