Exports of coco products dived by 64% in March

The contraction in the monthly volume of coconut-based exports worsened to 64 percent year-on-year in March after a 28-percent plunge in February, according to estimates of the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines.

Preliminary data from Ucap show that this developed amid the worsening performance of top dollar-earner coconut oil.

Shipment volumes totaled at 80,091 tons in copra terms in March, which shriveled from 223,726 tons in the same month of 2015 and from 110,769 tons last February.

The latest figures brought the volume for the first quarter of 2016 to 279,892 tons, falling by 36 percent year-on-year from 438,081 tons previously.

For the three months, shipments of top agricultural export coconut oil (CNO) dwindled by 40 percent to settle at 150,902 tons.

At the same time, the volume of oleochemicals jumped 29 percent to 8,258 tons while that of desiccated coconut gained 9 percent to 20,752 tons.

On the other hand, the volume of copra meal fell by 33 percent to 65,111 tons while that of copra dropped 83 percent to 23 tons.

The Ucap said that in March alone, CNO shipments showed the only decline at 70 percent year-on-year to 40,699 tons from 133,437 tons.

“The figure is the lowest so far recorded during the first quarter of the year but exceeded last year’s low of 33,909 tons recorded in May,” the group said.

About three-fifths or 60 percent of March shipments of CNO, at 24,299 tons, went to the European market which continued to be the top destination of this commodity.

For March, shipments of copra meal dipped by 3 percent to 24,937 tons while the volume of desiccated coconut surged by 39 percent to 8,175 tons.

Cargos of oleochemicals also rose by 3 percent to 2,850 tons in copra equivalent. There was no shipment of copra although 36 tons were exported in the same month last year.