Coconut farmers told to diversify beyond copra

Considered as among the poorest in the agriculture sector, coconut farmers are encouraged to diversify their farming system – with the intervention of government and business – to become suppliers not only of raw materials but also high-value products, industry officials said at a forum Thursday.

 

As the coconut oil is the largest dollar earner among Philippine agricultural exports, 3 million coconut farmers remain the poorest among our farmers, Presidential Adviser on Food Security and Agricultural Modernization Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said during the National Investment Summit for Coconut-Based Farm Enterprises in Makati City. 

 

"Earning P40-50 a day, a coconut farmer will remain poor unless serious interventions focused primarily on increasing incomes are undertaken by both government and private sector," he said.

 

"The coconut industry remains with so much potential not being tapped. Serious challenges face the industry," he noted.

 

The Philippines produces an average of 15 billion nuts a year from 330 million coconut trees.

 

"The sheer number of trees and the products we can derive from them remain untapped. Why? I believe, because the number one resource, the farmer, is taken advantage of, exploited, abused, neglected and left to fend for himself," Pangilinan said.

 

"If we will not intervene, if you will not do things differently, if we will not address the plight of our coconut farmers, then let us not expect change in the industry," the food czar added.

 

In the same forum, Philippine Coconut Authority administrator Romulo Arancon Jr. said the industry's value chain has a lot of potential products that provide immense opportunities beyond copra.

 

"The coconut sector offers numerous opportunities for livelihood and job generation, which should increase not only the farmers productivity, but more importantly, their income – thus, alleviate poverty," he said.

 

Among the high-value products coconut farmers could diversify into are virgin coconut oil, coconut flour, vinegar, nata de coco, charcoal, and handicraft from coconut husks, he said.

Coconut sugar

 

"Another very exciting growth is coconut sugar, which has been exported to various countries," Arancon said. "We dream that perhaps, all the coconut sugar that you will see in Starbucks, all sugar in airlines and in hotels are coconut sugar."

 

"Another potentially giant industry which we in the Philippines has a huge raw material base is the oil industry," he added.

 

Farmers should also get into the coconut water business, with the increasing demand for the product globally, according to the PCA official.

 

"The Philippines produces more than 15 billion nuts a year. If we are able to process and package this water for the export market, we have a potential export of 450 million liters of coconut water per year and a conservative average of 300 milliliters per nut, for some varieties 500 milliliters per nut," Arancon said.

 

But all these goals require capital for technologies and infrastructure to harness the value-added products from coconut.

 

"We therefore challenge to join in this quest for developing viable coconut-based enterprises in order to achieve our goal of eradicating poverty among our Filipino coconut farmers," Arancon said.

 

But government will have to do its part as well to attract investments in the coconut industry, Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) executive director Rafael Lopa said.

 

"We need to seek government assistance by ensuring the corporate-enabling environment," he said.

 

Government also needs to complete farm-to-market roads and "present opportunities to look at public-private partnerships to build other agriculture-based infrastructure and irrigation," Lopa added. – VS, GMA News