News: Coconut oil sales hit

Source:
http://www.tradearabia.com/tanews/newsdetails_snAGRI_article118445.html

Coconut oil sales hit
Posted: Sunday, February 04, 2007

Manila

Philippine coconut oil exports, normally around 60 per cent of the world
total, are likely to hit an eight-year low in 2007 after typhoons
wrecked crops, an industry official said.

The impact of the trio of typhoons late last year would be felt for the
next three years, said Yvonne Agustin, executive director at the United
Coconut Associations of the Philippines (UCAP).

UCAP, which groups local coconut oil millers, refiners and traders,
expected exports of Philippine coconut oil to fall 30 per cent to
750,000 tonnes this year due to the storm damage.

This would be the lowest since the country shipped 478,574 tonnes in 1999.

Agustin said initial exports of the oil, used for food, cosmetics and
biodiesel, slumped 74 per cent to a 7-½ year low of 22,400 tonnes in
January due to tight supplies.

'There is no copra, if you get some it's so expensive,' Agustin said,
referring to dried coconut meat from which oil is extracted.

The US and Europe buy most of the Philippine's coconut oil exports.

Agustin said 14 per cent of the country's estimated 300 million coconut
trees were damaged after typhoon Durian slammed into the centre of the
archipelago in late November, killing nearly 1,200 people.

Some 1.3 million were totally destroyed and needed replanting, while
around 15.6 million trees were slightly affected, 14.55 million
moderately damaged and 11.18 million heavily damaged.

Recovery of slightly damaged trees will take about 6 months and the
recovery of moderate to heavily-damaged trees could take between one to
two years, Agustin said.

'The weather will be a swing factor in the recovery of the trees,' she said.

UCAP said it expected the average export price of coconut oil to rise 20
percent this year to $640 per tonne FOB due to the fall in supply and
increased demand for it as a biofuel.

UCAP said the 2007 export forecast took into account the projected drop
in the production of copra -- dried coconut meat from which oil is
extracted -- and diverting of some supplies for the production of biodiesel.

Last month, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed a biofuels law that
requires a 1 per cent biodiesel blend derived from crops such as
coconuts for diesel this year and 2 per cent by 2009.

Agustin said a 1 per cent blend of coconut biodiesel would require an
estimated 70,000 tonnes of coconut oil.

UCAP said it expected a 9 per cent decline in Philippine copra
production this year to 2.24 million tonnes.Reuters

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