Coco oil exports down 46%

MANILA, Philippines - The volume of the country’s coconut oil exports dropped 46 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago due to lower demand, the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines Inc. (UCAP) said.

UCAP executive director Yvonne Agustin said in a telephone interview earlier this week that preliminary estimates of the volume of coconut oil exports for the January to March period reached 141,146 metric tons (MT), lower than the 260,009 MT shipped in the same period last year.

For the month of March alone, she said the volume of coconut oil exports posted a 32-percent decline to 60179 MT from the previous year’s 89,110 MT.

She said that while the supply of coconut oil has started to pick up, coconut oil shipments fell due to lower demand.

“There has been an improvement in the supply of coconut oil but demand seems weak,” she said.

She said that companies which usually purchase coconut oil for the manufacture of their products probably still had stocks of coconut oil.

She said that while the volume of coconut oil exports for the first quarter was lower compared to same period a year ago, UCAP expects shipments to rise in the coming months as buying activity improves.

The UCAP, she also said, still expects the volume of coconut oil exports to reach 925,000 MT this year.

“We’re keeping the 925,000 MT forecast. If you look at March, there has already been an improvement compared to shipments in February and we hope it would continue,” she said.

Last year, the country’s volume of coconut oil shipments reached 823,381 MT, below the 900,000 MT projection of the UCAP for that year.

The volume of coconut oil exports last year was likewise lower than the 1.343 million MT shipped in 2010.

The UCAP had attributed the decline in the volume of coconut oil exports last year to lower copra supply as the dry spell in the first-half of 2010 affected coconut output and coconut trees experienced stress from strong production for three consecutive years.