Coco industry: Help needed
With the drop in the buying prices of copra, the farmers and the industry itself are in danger
There are vast stretches of land in the country that is planted with coconut trees. In Davao Region, the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) 11 recorded more than 495,000 hectares. As of 2018, more than 353,700 coconut farmers are dependent on their coconut farms.
However, copra price continued to decline this year and even reached as low as P14.34 per kilogram as of March 16 compared to an average of P22.47 in the same period last year and even as high as P30 to P40 per kilogram in the previ- ous years.
Coconut farmers expressed dismay over the current situation of the market for copra. Some have refrained from selling their produce to the mills or local traders as the price become extremely low.
PCA 11 project development officer and focal person William Mortalla said in an interview with SunStar Davao that the decline of copra price is a result of the law of supply and demand in the global market and that this is only temporary.
“Ang presyo sa kopras nagaagad sa presyo sa global market sa coconut oil (The price of copra depends on the price of coconut oil in the global market),” he said, adding around 72 percent of coconut oil in the country are exported. Philippines is among the biggest exporter of the commodity.
While the Philippines is among the largest exporter of coconut oil, the commodity itself only accounts for two percent of the vegetable oil global market.
Mortalla added that palm oil has dominated the global market as its market share is now around 35 percent followed by soybean with around 29 percent.
“If the price of palm oil declines, because it has the biggest market share in the global market, consumers will likely shift in favor to what has the largest supply but still lower in price,” Mortalla said in Bisaya.
Last March 20, Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Emmanuel Piñol wrote on his Facebook page that government-owned Coconut Industry Investment Fund Oil Mills Group (CIIF-OMG) has agreed to increase its buying price for copra to P20 per kilogram and even offered a maximum loan of P50,000 under the Production Loan Easy Access for coconut farmers which they can use in starting livelihood activities that will tide them over while the buying price of copra is low.
This is just one of the actions that the government is doing to help the coconut farmers for now.
Mortalla said the government through the PCA has a lineup of interventions since they actually have no control over the price of copra in the market.
“Unfortunately, we do not have a floor price for copra unlike other commodities such as rice. Naturally, traders have the freedom to set a price that will maintain their profit,” he said, adding that it is one of tha disadvantages of coconut farmers.
Among the inteventions being made is the domestic utilization of products. This is to lessen dependence on exports. Mortalla said there is a current proposal of their office on increasing tge utilization of coconut methyl ester (CME) content in local biodiesel to 5 percent from 2 percent.
Other interventions are utilization of coconut products; programs that will lend coconut farmers of machineries and equipment for other coconut products such as coco sugar; intercropping programs for cacao, coffee, banana as alternative crops; livestock integrations; programs that help maximize production such as fertilization program; and direct copra marketing which is still being developed this year for easy market access of coconut farmers.