Marcos Jr. vows to fund coconut export program

MANILA, Philippines — cut Authority (PCA) program that aims to plant 100 million coconut trees by the end of his term to reach the goal of making the Philippines the number one coconut exporting country in the world.

Measures that seek to develop the coconut industry and key issues affecting the farm sector were discussed during Marcos’ meeting with the Private Sector Advisory Council-Agriculture Sector Group (PSAC-ASG) at Malacañang last Wednesday.

A Presidential Communications Office (PCO) statement quoted PSAC-ASG member Christopher Po as saying that the program on coconut trees is “not feasible due to limited funding.”

Po, also the executive chairman of Century Pacific Food, said the group is recommending the acceleration of the launch of a massive coconut tree planting program by increasing seednut production.

Marcos promised to see to it that sufficient funding would be given to the PCA to implement the program.

“This is really a great opportunity (for) the country. We have a chance to do it because (of) the market. Every single part of the nut (has) use and can be sold,” the President said.

The Philippines is the second biggest coconut exporting country in the world after its fellow Southeast Asian country Indonesia.

In a separate statement, PSAC said Marcos had proposed a “comprehensive” restructuring of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan Fund to ensure a more efficient allocation of resources and to support PCA’s replanting strategy.

The PCA seeks to replant 8.5 million coconut seedlings in 59,744 hectares this year. It also aims to fertilize 2.8 million trees in 28,341 hectares.

According to the PCO, the PSAC-ASG presented several recommendations to address funding issues, including directing the PCA to outline a roadmap to fast-track the launch of the coconut planting program.