[PBN] Global coconut oil demand to exceed exports this year

Source:

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Global-coconut-oil-demand-to-exceed-exports-this-year/266481/

Posted online: Tuesday , January 29, 2008 at 0025 hrs IST

Jakarta, Jan 28 Global demand for coconut oil used in making cooking
oil, beauty creams and bio-fuels, may exceed exports by as much as
320,000 metric tonne in the first half of the year, helping boost
prices, according to a producers' group.

Coconut oil exports will rise by a fifth to 980,000 tons in the first
half of 2008 from a year earlier, while demand will be 1.3 million tons,
according to a report by Amrizal Idroes, marketing officer at the
Jakarta-based Asian and Pacific Coconut Community, representing the 15
biggest producing countries.

The shortfall in supply may boost the average price of the commodity in
January through June by a fifth to at least $1,200 a tonne, including
freight costs, from a year earlier, he said. The Philippines and
Indonesia are the world's two-biggest exporters. Coconut oil for
delivery in Rotterdam averaged $1,153 a tonne in December, up 58% from a
year-earlier month, according to the US Foreign Agricultural Service. It
traded at $1,265 a tonne, including freight costs, on January 24,
according to data from the Coconut Community.

Stockpiles "will gradually decrease to meet consumption,'' Idroes said.
The monthly average inventory of lauric oils, including coconut oil and
palm oil, in Rotterdam dropped 51% to 19,308 tonne in 2007 from a year
earlier, after output and exports of coconut oil from the Philippines,
which accounts for 60% of global supply, fell last year, Idroes said.

The global stockpile of coconut oil is estimated at 144,000 tonne this
month, he said, without providing a comparative figure.

—Bloomberg

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