By Manny Piñol
Secretary of Agriculture
There is so much unrest now in the coconut industry, especially the copra producing provinces of the country, because of the very low prices of copra.
People who are not aware of the reasons behind this recurring problem of seasonal low prices of Copra blame government.
The suffering of the cococonut farmers today is more than just an issue of low copra prices but a symptom of a sick and neglected Agriiculture Sector.
One of the greatest tragedies in Philippine Agriculture is the fact that farmers have always been relegated to the status of raw materials producer.
This is true in the rice and corn industry where farmers sell their produce to traders even before it is dried and complain of low prices.
It is worse in the case of the Coconut Industry.
The Philippines is ranked No. 2 in the world with over 15-million metric tons of coconut produced every year from an area of about 3.5-million hectares.
Thailand which produces only 1-million metric tons from an area of about 216,000 hectares, however, outpaces the Philippines in the marketing of coconut products.
All over the United States now, Thai coconut products – from Coco Water to Coco Sugar – are outselling everybody.
Where did we go wrong?
It is all because of the dismal failure of government to elevate the coconut farmer from being a copra producer to a processor of high value products from coconut.
The main, and sometimes the only, product coming out of the coconut farms in the Philippines is copra which is processed by Oil Mills into coconut oil.
Since Coconut Oil is an internationally traded commodity, the prices would largely depend on world market prices.
When the prices drop, it is not the Oil Mill that absorbs the losses but the farmers. And since farmers are highly dependent on Copra production for their income, they suffer every time prices fall.
With an Agriculture Sector controlled and oftentimes monopolised by rich traders and processors, government in the past became an accomplice in condemning the Coconut Farmer to the pitiful status of just being an eternal copra producer.
There is more to Coconut than just copra and this administration will see to it that the coconut farmers today will be lifted up to the status of processors and even merchandisers of their products.
Definitely, these products will not be copra in its raw form.
Sadly, these reforms will not take place and transform the coconut industry overnight.
So now, we have to employ stop-gap programs or what I would call “tapal-tapal” measures just to ease the suffering of the farmers.
The marketing campaign in Eastern Europe for Coconut Oil and other Coconut Products which will start next week and the launching of the “Summer Coco Festival” tomorrow are just the immediately implementable measures.
There has to be an institutional reform in the Coconut Industry.
As soon as the Coconut Levy Fund is released this year, village level processing centres will be established so that organised coconut farmers will be turning out Virgin Coconut Oil, Coconut Water in Tetrapaks, Coco Chips, Coco Sugar, Coco Syrup, Irradiated Coco Coir and other high value products.
They will become their own merchandisers of the products that they will produce.
Under the Presidency of Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the Filipino coconut farmer will no longer be a slave to the modern-day vassals who own the processing facilities.
That is a promise!
(First photo showing coconut farmers in a copra production area was downloaded from the Inquirer. Second photo shows 2008 Outstanding Coconut Farmer Benjamin Lao of Bansalan, Davao del Sur displaying the high value organic coconut items he produces from his farm.)
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