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MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has approved an additional budget for the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) for 2025, the Palace said Tuesday.
In a statement on Tuesday, the PCO said Marcos during a sectoral briefing approved an additional P1 billion to be used for PCA’s project to plant 100 million coconut trees, while another P2.5 billion was earmarked for fertilization programs.
READ: Philippine Coconut Authority seeks higher budget of P2.4B in 2025
The PCO said the 100 million trees will be planted in over 700,000 hectares of land by 2028 in an effort to increase coconut production.
“I’m focusing on the production side [of the coconut industry] and that’s what we have to increase. The critical part of that is the replanting,” the PCO quoted Marcos as saying.
Meanwhile, PCA Administrator Dexter Buted said that of the 100 million, the PCA aims to plant 8.5 million seedlings in 2024 and 15.3 million seedlings in 2025.
From there, the PCA aims to plant 25.4 million every year from 2026 to 2028.
Citing the coconut industry’s potential, Marcos then further stressed the importance of the replanting program.
“That’s why we still maintain our very high position in terms of coconut products exports because despite the fact that we have neglected the coconut industry over so many years, we still, I think we’re number one pa rin,” he said, as quoted by the PCO.
“And despite the fact that we are really working with very limited raw material because nga hindi nag-replant puro matanda na ‘yung mga trees natin (there was no replanting and the trees are very old already). That’s why this replanting is important,” he added.
The Department of Agriculture, for its part, will implement intercropping—including coffee, cacao and bananas—while farmers wait for the trees to become productive.
Marcos then ordered the PCA to coordinate with the Cooperative Development Authority in consolidating farmers’ groups and associations to enable them to implement the program.