Decline in coconut-based exports worsens

The rate of decrease in the volume of major coconut-based exports in the 10 months to October doubled to 17 percent year-on-year due to both a dry spell and a strong typhoon that ravaged trees across the country.

Preliminary figures from the United Coconut Association of the Philippines (Ucap) also showed that outbound shipment volume for the first 10 months of 2016 fell to 1.06 million tons from 1.3 million tons in the same period of 2015.

From January to October this year, shipments of top agricultural export coconut oil (CNO) dropped by 20 percent to settle at 586,957 tons.

At the same time, the volume of copra meal fell by 27 percent to 232,063 tons and of copra by 88 percent at 59 tons.

On the other hand, shipments of desiccated coconut rose by 14 percent to reach 65,947 tons while those of oleochemicals jumped by 20 percent to 30,402 tons.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the dry spell due to the El Niño weather phenomenon hindered nut production and—for trees that did bear nuts—the extreme heat resulted in smaller nuts produced.

The PSA said this was observed mainly in Mindanao provinces but also in Quezon and Mindoro.

Also, the agency blamed Typhoon “Nona” that plowed through the Visayas in December 2015 for the decrease in the number of nut-bearing trees.

In October alone, the volume of all major coconut-based exports rose by 5 percent year-on-year to a total of 146,647 tons.

The October volume “also topped the monthly average of the last nine months (January-September) of 101,939 tons by a hefty 44 percent,” the Ucap said.

“All export products but copra meal registered increases over last year though against the monthly average, only coconut oil and desiccated coconut reflected increments,” the industry group added.

October exports of CNO inched up by one percent to 82,499 tons. Also, the volume was the highest so far for this year, exceeding the monthly average of 56,051 tons by 47 percent.

The United States was the biggest buyer CNO shipments, cornering 45,599 tons or 55 percent of the total CNO volume. Europe came at close second with 35 percent of exports while Malaysia and Japan shared the remaining 10 percent.

For October, shipments of copra meal fell by 36 percent to 21,736 tons, which went to Vietnam and South Korea.

Exports of desiccated coconut jumped 70 percent to 8,309 tons, showing year-on-year monthly growth for the fifth straight month.

Cargos of oleochemicals leaped by 9 percent to 2,850 tons in copra terms, but the volume was 7 percent lower than the monthly average of 3,061 tons.

There was no shipment of copra in October this year, the same as last year.