By Manny Piñol
The Department of Agriculture (DA) will resubmit to the Office of the Executive Secretary on Tuesday its recommendations to address the low prices of copra in the country, including a cut down on the importation of Palm Olein which is hurting the local coconut industry.
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea asked the DA to resubmit its earlier recommendations following a brief dialogue with Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri and PAGCOR Director Fred Lim on Wednesday in the Heroes Hall of Malacañang.
On Tuesday, the DA will resubmit its recommendations on how to address the low copra prices which include:
1. Increase in the use of coconut oil in the bio-diesel program from B2 (2%) to B5 (5%) which would effectively use up an estimated 200,000 metric tons of copra.
2. Imposition of a Quantitative Restriction on the volume of Palm Olein imported from Malaysia and Indonesia because of a drastic volume increase of 900% over the last three years.
The increase in the use of coconut oil in the bio-diesel program is frowned upon by the fuel industry because it could increase the cost of bio-diesel by about P0.35 per liter.
What has not been emphasised, however, is the fact that by using more coconut oil in bio-diesel, the mileage of vehicles increases by about 3 kilometres per litre and improves the air pollution index.
The imposition of a QR on Palm Olein or tariffs could actually be employed by the Philippines in cutting down on the volume of the imports to protect the local industry.
This is allowed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as a trade remedy but it could have a trade backlash with both Malaysia and Indonesia, thus the need to refer this to the country’s Economic Managers before it could be enforced by the DA.
It was Lim who approached me and asked what the DA was doing to address the very low prices of copra which he said was hurting farmers in the coconut producing regions of the country, especially the Bondoc Peninsula.
I informed him that as early as June 2018 even before the transfer of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to the DA in October, the problem of low copra prices was already pointed out by the Agriculture Department.
Following the transfer of the PCA to the DA in October last year, the Agriculture Department submitted several recommendations to address the plummeting copra prices.
Senator Zubiri, for his part, promised to meet with Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi to propose the implementation of the B5 phase of the Bio-Diesel Program.
From about P40 per kilo three years ago, Copra Prices have fallen to as low as P16 per kilo in many copra producing areas of the country.
The DA has offered livelihood loans to coco farmers cooperatives but these are just temporary measures to cushion the negative impact of the low prices.
(First photo from MindaNews website while the second photo was downloaded from a public website.)
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