THE Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) is upbeat that higher copra price will prevail in the next two to three years.
Average farm gate price of copra, a major by-product of coconut rose to P18.36 per kilogram this week from P15.53 early of Dec. 2019, according to PCA’s price watch data.
The current copra trading price is way better than the P12.11 per kilogram recorded in the same period in 2019.
PCA Eastern Visayas coconut regulation officer Benjamin Yu said on Wednesday that based on historical trend, the price of copra goes up for two to three years after a three-year consistent price drop.
“The demand for coconut oil has been rising in the world market as more processors realize that it has better quality than competing products such as palm oil. The price of palm oil has also increased late last year, making coconut oil more affordable,” Yu said.
The PCA projected a better price after they noticed that a coconut oil processor in Samar bought a lot of copra late last year as they forecasted that its price would adjust in 2020.
Copra price in the country has declined remarkably in the past three years. From P54 per kilogram in Jan. 2017, it dropped to P33.94 a year after. The price further declined to only P13.39 in Jan. 2019 and it remained until Nov.
It was only in Dec. last year that copra price started to increase at P16 per kilogram.
The government has no control over the fluctuating copra price since it is dictated by the global oil market dominated by palm oil and soybean oil with a share of 35 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
“Even if the country has been shipping 80 percent of our coconut by-product overseas, the share of the local produce only accounts 3 percent in the global edible oil market,” Yu said. (PNA)
