Thailand, with an estimated coconut production area of only 216,000 hectares beats the Philippines, ranked No. 2 in the world with 3.5-million hectares, in the marketing of high value Coconut products.
The reason?
The Philippines coconut industry’s main product is Copra which is used to process Coconut Oil whose price is dependent on World Market Indexes.
Thailand produces Coco Water, Coco Sugar, Coco Syrup, Coco Chips and exports green coconuts to the United States and Europe.
The culprit?
Government, of course, and the feudal system of Agriculture that we have in the Phiippines where there was hardly any effort to lift the Coconut farmer from the status of just being a lowly copra producer to a processor just like the Thais.
Can we catch up?
It is going to be a tough task but if we institute reforms now by using our Coconut Levy to establish village-level processing centres for farmers to produce high value items rather than Copra, the bleak scenario we see now in the Coconut Industry will change.
It needs political will though and our consolation is that President Rody Duterte has an unlimited reservoir of the drive to change this country for the better.
With the release of the Coconut Levy fund soon, the change will happen.
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