Coco oil exports up 35% in Oct

MANILA, Philippines - Coconut oil exports rose 35 percent in October year-on-year as traditional markets restock, the United Coconut Association of the Philippines (UCAP) said yesterday.

UCAP executive director Yvonne Agustin said that preliminary data showed that the country’s CNO exports reached 94,880 metric tons (MT) in October 2012, up 35 percent from the 70,303 MT exported a year ago.

Coconut oil exports, meanwhile, reached a total of 741,256 MT in January to October 2012, up 5.1 percent than the 705,214 MT in the same period in 2011.

Agustin said the industry was able to meet the demand of international buyers because of ample coconut supply brought about by good weather in the second half of the year.

She said demand has been picking up for six months now especially because copra production is expected to peak before the year ends.

Agustin said higher shipments are seen this year as demand shifts from palm kernel oil to CNO because of narrowing price difference.

Palm kernel oil is the main competitor commodity of coconut oil in the world market.

Early this year, the price of coconut oil was higher than palm kernel oil, but since March, the price difference  began to close in.

Last month, coconut oil was priced at an average of $845 per MT, while palm kernel oil was at $850 per MT.

Lower international prices, however, translated to lower earnings despite higher export volume.

“Because of lower international prices, our earnings continued to slow down despite the six consecutive months of export growth,” Agustin said.

With the increased demand in coconut oil exports and ample supply, Agustin said the country would likely meets its target shipment volume of 925,000 metric tons this year.

Last year,  the industry was not able to meet its industry export target of 900,000 MT because of tight supply of coconut in the domestic market.

Coconut oil exports last year fell by 39 percent annually to 823,381 MT.