THE ECONOMICS OF THE COCONUT BUSINESS

THE ECONOMICS OF THE COCONUT BUSINESS

My beloved countrymen, when I was in Thailand some years ago, I noticed that their farmers were watering their coconut trees. My first reaction was to think that those people must be stupid, because who in his right mind would water a coconut tree? It was only later when I realized that they are doing the right thing, because their trees are healthier. Much later, I also realized that as commercial crops, coconut trees not only need water, but they also need fertilizers.

Very recently, I saw an online video where the farmers dug up creeks in between their rows of coconut trees, so that the nuts could just fall into the creeks for easy transport. I imagine that the creeks are also used to supply water to the trees. That could be a smart thing to do for our farmers here, simply because our government does not seem to be irrigating other crops yet, aside from rice. Digging up creeks in between rows of coconut trees seems like a good idea, but is it really the best idea?

I am asking that question because I have recently watched an online presentation where the speaker proposed not only the intercropping of coconut trees with other trees such as coffee and cacao, but also raising cattle in between. I wish that the government will study the pros and cons or the economics of these two approaches, so that our farmers could choose wisely. Who do you think can do this? Perhaps an interagency task force composed of PCA, DA, NEDA and DTI would be needed?

I believe that there was a time when the Philippines was the number one exporter of coconut products in the world, but sadly, Indonesia has already overtaken us with 17.9 million metric tons, while we only exported 14.3 million metric tons. The third in place is India with 13.32 million metric tons. What happened to our coconut industry? Is the problem the lack of irrigation? Or is it the lack of fertilization? What can we do to overtake Indonesia and become number one again?

I have an idea, and I would like to convince you to agree with me. Instead of competing with Indonesia and India in exporting raw coconuts, why not go into the exportation of finished products that are coconut based instead? We have already started doing this with coconut milk, coconut cream and coconut water, but we should do more product development to come up with better products that have more value added.

To make our coconut industry more innovation driven, there is no other way except to adopt the “Whole of Government” approach. That means mobilizing not only the DA and the PCA, but also other agencies that could help in engineering, financing, packaging, advertising and marketing, among others. Aside from the DTI, the government should harness the DFA to do more of economic diplomacy abroad. The “Country Team Approach” is still a good idea, but our ambassadors should become more vigorous in leading the teams. Very truly yours, IKE SENERES/11-21-2024/visit my blog senseneres.blogspot.com


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