Philippine Export of Coconut Products Up in September

Official figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority show Philippine export of coconut products in September climbed 15.7% to 167,361 MT in copra terms from 144,623 MT in the same month last year, reversing declines observed since March this year. Gross export receipts, however, grew more sharply by 45.9% to USD164.696 million from USD112.844 million.

Export of coconut oil hiked 9.8% year-on-year to 83,382 MT from 75,944 MT but trade of by-product copra meal dropped 26.0% to 15,840 MT from 21,396 MT.  Shipment of desiccated coconut lightly dipped by 1.1% to 13,678 MT from 13,830 MT while oleochemicals rocketed 414.4% to 13,862 MT as copra from 2,695 MT.

Other products performed as follows, in MT: coco shell charcoal 8,334 (+14.0% from 7,311 last year), activated carbon 6,864 (+3.5% from 6,630), virgin coconut oil 2,580 (+58.0% from 1,633), fresh coconuts 150 (-30.0% from 214), Others 30,047 (+58.4% from 19,967).

However, the cumulative export data for the nine-month period to September at 1,319,296 MT in copra terms remained behind last year at 1,586,228 MT by 16.8%.  Corresponding revenue at USD1.235 billion fell slightly by 1.1% from USD1.248 billion.

Desiccated coconut and oleochemicals remained growth performers with respective tonnage increases of 1.9% and 197.1% during the nine-month period.  Breakdown on shipment is as follows, in MT: coconut oil 664,288 (872,484 last year), copra meal 141,085 (233,163), desiccated coconut 112,484 (110,417), oleochemicals as copra 90,962 (30,619); Coco shell charcoal 62,214 (60,003), activated carbon 59,645 (59,908), virgin coconut oil 19,314 (16,261), coco water 12.404 million liters (49.261 million), fresh coconuts 613 (1,811), Others 230,658 (140,550).