Roadmap workshop sets Quezon coconut industry on track

LUCENA CITY—A recent workshop held in this city has set the stage for the development of a comprehensive roadmap that aims to shape the future of Quezon province’s coconut industry.

The workshop held in May was organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca), the provincial government of Quezon through the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, and the Philippine Coconut Authority Region IV.

Noting that the workshop brought together key stakeholders from various sectors, Searca Director Dr. Glenn Gregorio said it yielded significant outputs that will serve as crucial inputs for the formulation of the coconut roadmap document.

According to Dr. Ana Clarissa Mariano, Quezon’s provincial agriculturist, Quezon province has the highest number of coconut trees and a substantial population of coconut farmers.

She emphasized the need for a wellstructured coconut plan tailored to the province’s unique circumstances.

OPAG economist Russel Manuba gave an overview of the status of the coconut industry in Quezon province. He presented the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of the province’s coconut industry, which were gathered from the stakeholders during previous workshops in February 2023.

The initial SWOT findings were augmented by SWOT analyses of specific coconut-based commodities, namely, virgin coconut oil, copra, coco sugar and lambanog undertaken and presented by the workshop participants.

Planning officer John Arrish Ocampo facilitated the discussions after presenting the roadmap’s vision, mission, goals and key result areas (KRAS) and noted the comments from the stakeholders. This set the stage for the action planning wherein the participants identified specific strategies and key performance indicators in relation to the identified KRAS for each of the four coconut-based commodities.