COCO MILLERS TO BUY COPRA AT HIGHER PRICE

BAD days for local coconut farmers will soon be over as buying price of copra will start to rise to as much as P24 per kilogram (kg), coupled with

In a statement on Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the country’s biggest coconut oil millers committed to buy copra directly from local farmers at a millgate price higher by P9 from the average farmgate price of P15/kg.

He said the millers agreed to cooperate on the direct-selling scheme for copra farmers, following a recent dialogue to address complaints by coconut farmers of very low copra prices.

from the Department of Agriculture ( DA) and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA).

“The millers have also committed to prevent the buying price from going down at that level to help coconut farmers nationwide,” Piñol added.

Data from the PCA showed the average farmgate price of copra declined by 59.66 percent to P15.52/kg from P38.70/kg in 2017. In remote areas, copra price has even dropped to as low as P8/kg, Piñol said.

In response, Pinol said the DA’s Agricultural Credit Policy Council will extend easy access credit of about P200 million for the working capital of local coconut farmers groups so they can buy the copra produce of their members and sell it directly to oil mills. The subject amount will be lent at 6 percent interest annually, he added.

be tasked to assist farmers in hauling their copra to the oil mills,” said Piñol. “The direct-selling scheme is expected to provide relief to coconut farmers until the expected increase of copra prices by mid-2019,” he added.

To further help coconut farmers, the PCA will also be directed to source

percent to 22,061 units in November while passenger car (PC) sales dropped 22.7 percent to 9,197 units from a year earlier.

Year to date, commercial vehicle sales were 11.5 percent lower at 225,746 units while the PC segment was down 20.4 percent at 99,719 units.

Toyota Motors Philippines Corp. continued to dominate the local vehicle market, with November sales totaling 14,147 units — down 18.1 percent from a year earlier — giving it a 45.26-percent market share.

Year to date, the carmaker also remained on top with sales of 138,476 units and a 42.55-percent market share. funds intended for farm machinery and equipment such as hauling trucks and modern drying facilities.

By mid-2019, the DA is eyeing to establish community-level processing facilities of coco by-products in different coconut-producing regions across the country to be owned and operated by the farmers themselves. These high value products include coconut oil, virgin coco oil, coco water, coco chips, coco syrup, coco sugar and coco coir.

The DA is also looking at imposing

Reckoned from a year earlier, sales were down 16.9 percent.

In second place was Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp., which sold 5,421 units (down 22 percent) during the month for a market share of 17.34 percent and a total of 62,013 units (down 7 percent) as of end-November for 19.05 percent of the market.

Rounding out the top three was Nissan Philippines, Inc., which grew sales by 22.9 percent in November to 3,453 units for an 11.05 percent market share.

January- November sales, meanwhile, were 42 percent higher at 31,663, given the automaker 9.73 percent of the domestic market.