Gov't to establish 5 coconut industrial estates

Five agro-industrial estates for the production and processing of high-value coconut products will be established this year, ideally near small farmers, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said Monday. He added that each estate will have a processing capacity of 5,000 nuts a day and include cold storage facilities. Alcala also said that the Department of Agriculture (DA) is preparing a proposal to the National Ecomoic Development Authority (NEDA) to offer the estates under the government's public-private partnership program for infrastructure funding, and that discussions are are also underway between the DA and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) to position the estates as economic zones. “There were already two groups of [foreign] investors who approached me. This is the kind of economic activity that is needed in the countryside. From these activities, many related industries will rise,” he said. The department also plans to establish larger export-oriented agro-industrial estates at least 150 hectares in area in a major coconut-producing region. The establishment of the industrial estates for coconut is part of the coconut industry's development roadmap. The volume of coconut commodities exports rose 1.49 percent year-on-year to 1.53 million metric tons in 2012, but fell 21.57 percent in terms of value to $1.54 billion as international demand fell, according to data from the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA). — BM, GMA News