A young boy exhibits his agility by climbing the coconut tree with ease at the Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Incorporated School (MISFI) compound in Barangay Kisante, Makilala, North Cotabato. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com file photo)
By Christine Megriño, Intern
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – A coconut advocate campaigns for the replanting of coconut trees to sustain the needs of different industries and to help boost Philippine economy.
Virgilio Sangutan, president of Davao Inventors Association (DIA) who is also an advocate of the coconut industry said Davao City has not enough coconut trees to provide coconut virgin oil, which is a primary component of many industrial products.
During Monday’s Kapehan sa Dabaw press conference, Sangutan said that if there will be a continuous scarcity on coconut trees, industries such as livestock, aquaculture, bakery and soap and detergent will be affected.
Sangutan said this could lead to an increase of product price on meat, bread among other products.
“60 percent of feeds manufacturing is copra meal,” Sangutan explained as he discussed about the importance of coconut oil as the major component to sustain the livestock industry.
“Our country is composed of 7,100 islands and those islands are composed of rivers that is good for coconut trees,” Sangutan said.
He said the program of the present administration must focus more on replantation because coconut trees bear fruits in a span of only three years.
In addition, Sangutan also said he had a talk recently with Korean investors with regards to their need of quality coconut virgin oil to sustain their cosmetics industry, the highest income rate in their country.
“We are in the process of negotiation,” Sangutan said.
According to Sangutan, the Korean investors required at least four to six 20 footer containers each month which needs a lot of coconut trees to produce a certain amount of coconut virgin oil.
On January 3, the Philippine Coconut Authority(PCA) imposed a three-month moratorium to preserve and conserve coconut trees.
In a recent report of Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in 2015, the Philippines has a total of 329.9 million bearing trees while the coconut plantation has a total area of 3.5 million hectares.(davaotoday.com)
