LegOil reopening to boost Albay coconut farmers' income - Salceda

MANILA, Philippines - The reopening of the Legazpi Oil copra crushing plant in this city, refurbished recently with a P400-million capital infusion from state owned Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF)-Oil Mills Group, will surely invigorate the coconut industry in Albay and the whole of Bicol Region, according to Albay Gov. Joey Sarte Salceda.

Salceda said the plant’s reopening assures a huge boost to coconut farmers’ incomes in the region, coming as it does just when coconut trees are starting to recover from the destructive impact of the 2006 typhoons.

Bicolano coconut farmers and copra buyers will no longer have to sell their produce to far-away Lucena City or Manila and incur more expenses and risk, Salceda noted.

“Legazpi Oil’s modern copra crushing equipment provides a 24-hour operation that can take bulk of the region’s produce,” Salceda said.

President Arroyo reopened the plant recently, assisted by Legazpi Oil chairman Josefa Imperial-Aquino, Salceda and CIIF officials led by its new president and CEO Jesus “Jess” Arranza. She also personally inspected the facility and conferred with Bicolano coconut farmers.

Salceda, who is also President Arroyo’s closest economic adviser, said local coconut farmers can now demand and expect higher prices for their copra because commercial buyers will now have to compete with the Legazpi Oil plant.

He said the P400-million investment put in by the CIIF would insure sustained aggressive copra buying activities for the plant’s copra crushing and oil processing operations that will deny commercial buyers from dictating their depressed copra prices to coconut farmers.

Originally called the Legazpi Oil Mill Com., the firm is now referred to as LegOil. Its corporate facilities are located inside a vast compound in Barangay Arimbay along the north-eastern coastline of this city. The plant was mothballed temporarily following severe devastations of coconut plantations by super typhoons that hit the area three years ago.

Company officials now expect their plant to procure and absorb an average of 350,000 tons of copra after farmers and traders expressed willingness to once again deal with LegOil and avail of its mill gate price that is higher than farm gate prices. The plant’s processing capacity of 400 tons per day is expected to increase further by 25 percent when it operates full blast.