The volume of exported coconut products jumped 54.8 percent year-on-year in the first semester to some 1.1 million metric tons (MT) in copra terms, as coconut oil shipments surged.
Data from the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines (Ucap) show that most coconut product exports showed two-digit increases in volume.
Copra meal exports went up by 153 percent to 435,834 MT in the first six months of 2013. This is the residue left after oil is squeezed out, and which is used to make livestock and fishery feeds.
Top farm export coconut oil showed a 61-percent jump to 391,471 MT while oleochemicals leaped 20 percent to 16,915 MT in copra terms and desiccated coconut, by 12 percent to 57,101 MT.
In June, however, export volumes fell by 18.2 percent to 118,381 MT in copra terms which, Ucap said, was largely due to a 22.5-percent drop in the shipment of coconut oil.
That month, the Philippines shipped out only 63,408 MT of coconut oil.
Similarly, shipments of oleochemicals shrank by 13.5 percent to 2,950 MT.
The volume of copra meal surged 38.5 percent to 59,975 MT and that of desiccated coconut by 29 percent to 9,562 MT.
The latest related data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) show that the country’s trade deficit for agricultural goods dropped by 85.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to settle at $102.3 million.
BAS data show that, in the first three months of the year, the value of agricultural exports jumped 41.5 percent while imports of the same goods eased by 6.6 percent.
The top 10 farm exports include coconut oil, fresh bananas, tuna, centrifugal sugar, pineapple and its products, manufactured tobacco, seaweeds and carrageenan, copra oil cake, desiccated coconut and unmanufactured tobacco.
From January to March, agricultural products accounted for 13.6 percent or $1.64 billion of the $12.1-billion total outbound shipments.
On the other hand, agricultural imports represented 11.5 percent or $1.74 billion of the $15.2 billion worth of inbound cargos.
The top imports include wheat and meslin, soybean oil or cakemeal, milk and cream and their products, meat of bovine animals, manufactured fertilizer, coffee, unmanufactured tobacco, urea, tuna and cocoa.