Coconut oil exports up 59 percent in November

COCONUT oil exports surged by more than half in November this year, the seventh straight month of increase as traditional markets continued to replenish their stocks, the United Coconut Association of the Philippines (UCAP) said on Monday.

In a telephone interview, Yvonne Agustin, UCAP executive director, said that preliminary data showed that the country’s CNO exports reached 72,880 metric tons (MT) in November 2012, or 59 percent higher than the 45,734MT a year ago.

Agustin, however, said that volume of CNO exports has slowed down significantly from the previous month’s level of 94,880MT. This was attributed to the slow recovery in traditional markets, particularly in the United States and Europe. CNO exports reached a total of 773,284MT in January to November 2012, or 3 percent higher than the 750,948MT in the first 11 months of 2011.

Meanwhile, prices of coconut oil are expected to increase in the wake of Typhoon Pablo, which has left over P766.822-million worth of damages with over a million trees felled.

“This will certainly affect copra production in December this year, and will continue by next year,” Agustin said, noting that the affected provinces are considered as key copra producing areas in Mindanao.

With the number of coconut trees felled, the industry could lose about 45 million nuts or 8,623MT of oil per year, the official added.

“The expected increase in copra production, which is expected to peak at the end of the year, may be greatly affected and will continue until next year,” he noted.

But despite the damage, Agustin assured that the industry would able to meet demand from international buyers, noting that there is still ample supply of the commodity. The official expressed confidence said that the industry will meet its target for this year. The Philippines aims to ship 925,000 metric tons of CNO this year.

In 2011, the industry fell short of its coconut oil export target of 900,000 MT because of the persistent tight supply of coconut in the domestic market. Coconut oil exports last year dropped nearly 39 percent annually to 823,381MT.