The volume of coconut-based exports jumped by 64 percent year-on-year in November despite Supertyphoon “Yolanda” ravaging millions of coconut trees in the Visayas.
Preliminary data from the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines (Ucap) showed that the country shipped out last month 133,876 metric tons of coconut products in copra terms.
The November volume also represented a 23-percent surge from the 109,022 MT exported in October.
Ucap observed, however, that the November shipments fell short of the monthly average of 145,552 MT that was recorded in the quarter ending September.
Still, for the 11 months to November, the volume of coconut exports showed strong expansion at 36 percent with a total of 1.84 million MT.
All product categories, except copra, showed double-digit increases during the 11-month period.
The January to November shipments of coconut oil jumped by 37 percent to 1.03 MT; copra meal by 32 percent to 744,480 MT; desiccated coconut by 29 percent to 114,101 MT and oleochemicals, in copra term, by 45 percent to 31,651 MT.
During the period, the volume of copra export plunged by 74 percent to 116 MT.
In November, alone, shipments of top dollar-earner coconut oil surged by 64 percent to 71,350 MT, as did desiccated coconut, which jumped 51 percent to 10,751 MT.
Oleochemical exports rocketed by 114 percent to 4,000 MT in copra terms but the volume of copra meal exports dropped by 30 percent to 46,406 MT.
In a related development, the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) is setting up a P60-million coco coir tufting facility in Javier, Leyte, as part of efforts to bring exports up the value chain.
The planned facility is meant to produce high-quality mats, geotextiles and rugs for shipment overseas.
Being developed in cooperation with the local government of Javier, the workshop is awaiting tufting machines that are expected to arrive from India within the month.
According to the PCA, the project will benefit some 500 families, creating up to 2,500 jobs related to the making of twines from coco coir.
Last October, officials of the PCA and of Javier signed an agreement through which the agency committed to provide the facility. For its part, the town council would mobilize the local coconut farmers’ organization and put up counterpart funds.
Back then, PCA Administrator Euclides G. Forbes said the agency would promote the technology that would add value to coconut products and by-products such as the manufacture of twine and rope from coco coir.