De Venecia to keynote coco summit

House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. will keynote the 15th National Coconut Week celebration at the Coconut Stakeholders’ Summit which will be held at the BSWM Auditorium, Department of Agriculture compound today.

Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Q. Montemayor will deliver a statement while Presidential Adviser on Agricultural Modernization Angelito M. Sarmiento will read the message of her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The major event for this year’s celebration of coconut week, the summit will be attended by all of the sectors of the coconut industry from farmers, farmworkers, traders, processors, refiners and exporters, as well as policy makers and advocates from government and people’s organizations.

De Venecia is expected to rally the support of the participants in working for a unified set of goals for the development of the coconut industry and will witness the signing of the Coconut Stakeholders’ Covenant.

PCA Administrator Danilo M. Coronacion said the summit intends to come out with a coconut industry philosophy that defines the coconut industry’s position as a national patrimony, as the tree of life, a valuable export commodity and as an indigenous and renewable resource. To be spelled likewise is a vision of unity, competitiveness, efficiency and equity.