PCA conducts info drive to improve coco produce

The Philippine Coconut Administration is conducting a massive information campaign in the hope of luring more investors to maintain the country's status as the world's leader in coconut production.

During the recently concluded Philippine Coconut Week, PCA Administrator Oscar Garin called on the regional PCA Managers for the conduct of an information campaign to raise and improve the quality of produced coconuts.

The campaign dubbed as "May Bilog sa Niyog," puts on view that there is money in coconuts from the farmers, to the processors, traders, to the exporters and will eventually spell out better life for the Filipino people.

Urgently, the regional managers were called to fertilize existing coconut stands to easily increase current production by at least 20 percent.

In Central Visayas the whole nut production is 838 million nuts annually or equivalent to 100,000 metric tons of coconut oil.

An average tree produces 35 seed nuts each year.

PCA 7 regional manager Deodiro Ravelo said they are now targetting to exceed the 100,000 metric tons of coconut oil with constant monitoring of existing coconut farms and strengthening local government unit partnership.

The province of Oriental Negros through Governor George Arnaiz, Ravelo said, is an LGU who immediately placed an additional P2 million for the massive coconut rehabilitation and production in the entire province.

In Cebu province, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia had allocated P1 million late last year for the siad program.

Coconut oil production in the Philippines which reached an amount of P457 million increased by 17 percent for the first half of this year compared with the first half of 2005.