Consumers urged to use local coconut oil

THE Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA)Northern Mindanao is urging the public to increase the use of coconut oil in the Philippines.

This was after the PCA recorded a continued decline of this year’s copra price as a result of the law of supply and demand in the global market.

Ralph Marcel Estaño, project development officer of PCA-Northern Mindanao, said that as of this moment, the agency has no control yet of of copra because since the beginning, the consumption of coconut oil is only few in the country.

“Unfortunately, wala gyud tay (the PCA) control ani sa presyo sa copra kay sa sugod palang, ang atoang supply sa coconut oil, gamay ra ang atoang consumption dinhi sa Philippines. In fact, less than 10 percent ra ang atoang consumption sa coconut oil dinhi sa Philippines. So ga-rely ta karon sa export,” said.

Despite the fact that Philippines is the number one exporter of coconut oil, this does not mean that it brought a huge impact in the world market.

“Kay sa world market, 2 percent ra ang iyang ginahatag ginasupply nga oil,” Estaño said.

He also explained that the supply of the other vegetable oils, particularly the palm oil and soy bean oil, increased.

“So tungod kay daghan ang supply, nagpabarato ang presyo sa vegetable oils, sama sa kaning palm oil, soy bean oil. Palm oil constitutes to around 30 percent ang market share nila sa vegetable oils. Then ang soy bean oil nasa 27 to 29 percent,” Estaño said.

Apart from the over supply, Estaño added that the decrease in the price of palm oil is also due to the European Union stopping the promotion of palm oil.

“Ang European Union dili na kay na nila ginapromote ang palm oil kay dili daw sya maayo sa atoang environment,” Estaño said.

Thus, in order to compete with the palm oil in the market, the price for coconut oil also decline.

“And tungod sa nibarato sa world market, nag trickle down effect na dayun sya. Ni-effect sya sa atong mga oil millers diri sa Philippines and tungod ana, barato pud ang ilahang palit sa atoang traders and sa coconut farmers,” he said.

Estaño said the PCA has started taking actions to help coconut farmers, one of which was the launching of the Coconut Festival to increase domestic utilization of buko by promoting juice as a cool and healthy drink during the hot summer months.

He also shared that the PCA is planning on doing a direct copra marketing wherein they will select a cooperative or organization in each provinces to consolidate copra.

“Aware man nga dili tanang organization kay fully capable karon so we coordinate karon sa Agricultural Credit Policy Council para maka-provide og loans or financial assistance para adtong mga farmers organization para sila na gyud ang mopalit gyud sa copra sa ilahang mga farmers og sila na pud magbaligya sa atong mga oil mills,” Estaño said.

In that way, the organization will gain higher income and will be able to help the copra farmers, he added.