Before Yolanda, coconut exports grew by 47%

MANILA, Philippines-  Before Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) hit the Visayas, coconut exports  grew by 47% for the first 9 months of the year, according to the Philippine Coconut Authority ( PCA).

In a statement on Monday, December 23, PCA administrator Euclides Forbes said the volume of coconut exports reached almost 1.617 million metric tons (MT) from January to September this year, higher than the 1.09 million MT exported in the same period in 2012.

Demand for copra meal abroad increased by 60.86% as a total 630,622 MT of copra meal were exported for the first 9 months of 2013. Exports for  Activated Carbon rose as well by 55.43%, amounting to 39,066 MT for the same period.

Forbes also noted that the value of coco exports from January to September 2013 increased by 3.18%, reaching US$1.205 billion.

He stressed that this is the fourth consecutive year that coconut exports reached a  billion-dollar high. Coconut exports from previous years were valued at $1.627 billion, $1.505 billion and $1.532 bilion for 2010, 2011, and 2012, respectively.

The PCA administrator noted that this year’s goal of planting 17.5 million coconut seedlings all over the country is already 98% completed. Forbes added that 1.5 million seedlings were planted in  Eastern Visayas: Leyte, Southern Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Biliran which suffered massive destruction caused by Typhoon Yolanda ( Haiyan).

Global supply

The Philippines provides more than 40% of the world’s coconut oil and the areas hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan account for 10-15 percent of the country’s output, Yvonne Agustin, executive director of the industry group United Coconut Association of the Philippines (UCAP), earlier told Agence France-Presse.

Yolanda, which struck the Visayas on November 8, left more than 8,000 people dead or missing and affected more than 4 million people. The super typhoon also reduced  a vast region of coconut farmland to wasteland including Leyte, a major coconut-growing province, which produces one third of all the coconuts  in the country.

Experts predict global coconut oil supplies will likely fall next year after the killer typhoon.

“The effect of (Yolanda) will be seen next year, especially in terms of exports of coconut oil,” she told AFP but did not say by how much supplies would be affected.

The PCA earlier said the damaged trees accounted for less than one percent of the country’s estimated total of about 340 million trees.

President Benigno Aquino III earlier said that coconut farmers will be taught intercropping to increase their earnings.

Watch coconut farmer Gilbert Negad from talk about the pests that hound coconut farms after being hit by super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) below.

– Rappler.com