Ex-Senator Zubiri raises warning on falling copra prices 

Former Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri has called on the government to hasten aid to the country’s coconut farmers in light of the falling copra prices.

 

“Families dependent on coconut farming are now in a very rough patch wherein their incomes are suddenly falling, while prices of prime commodities are skyrocketing,” said Zubiri in a statement released Friday.

 

Zubiri, an Agriculture graduate from the University of the Philippines, added that with lower income the country’s 3.5 million coconut farmers and their families become more vulnerable to hunger.

 

GMA News Online called the contact number of Zubiri’s office to inquire further into his interest in the plight of coconut farmers, but no one answered.

 

The latest hunger survey conducted by the Social Weather Station last month revealed that almost five million families claim they have experienced involuntary hunger. This translates to a hunger rating of 23.8 percent, which is slightly higher than the 22.5-percent rating recorded last December.

 

Falling copra prices

 

Zubiri pointed out that the crash in copra prices in the recent months is hurting the livelihood of many copra-dependent families.

 

Mill gate prices of copra have fallen to a range of P28 to P31.50 per 100 kilogram, according an official of the Philippine Coconut Authority’s (PCA) Trade Information and Relations Division, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.

 

However, farm gate prices–or how much farmers actually sell their copra–are even P5 to P10 lower per kg.

 

The PCA official noted that prices are even lower in the Visayas (P27 to P28) and Mindanao (P27 to P29), where the volume of copra supply is higher.

 

The downward trend in prices is expected to continue until August, when the rainy season sets in and demand once again outstrips supply.

 

The economic downturn in Europe and the United States weakened the demand for copra products–a major cause of falling prices. —VS, GMA News