One in seven coconut trees in the Philippines is “past retirement age,” which if not replaced will jeopardize the country’s ability “to quench the increasing global thirst for coco water,” Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara has warned.
Coconut trees are the “fountains of buko juice” but 44 million of them, or 15 percent of the national total, Angara said, are past their productive age.
He said ageing coconut trees also threaten the biodiesel program, which under the law must supply five percent of the diesel need. “Coconut trees are our oil rigs. If they go dry then our biofuel program sputters, too.”
To arrest the decline in coconut production, Angara proposed a stepped up coconut replanting program, “to maintain or even expand the national inventory of 342 million bearing trees.”
“If the world gets addicted to coconut juice, then the supply will certainly not be enough, as coconut is also used for food and fuel,” he said, adding that the national government subsidy of P682 million to the Philippine Coconut Administration for 2012 “is clearly not enough for a serious replanting program.”
Of this amount, some P220 million will be spent to plant 4.4 million trees, “but this figure covers just 10 percent of the trees that need to be replaced,” Angara said.
He said a “P50 per tree” planting expense is cheap considering that one tree will later produce an average 50 nuts a year.
Angara echoed warnings by coconut industry leaders and officials that the country may not be able to meet “export demand” by 2016 if no new coconut trees will come on stream. The industry, on which a fourth of the country’s population directly or indirectly depends for livelihood, is a P65 billion a year industry. Coconut is grown in seven out of 10 towns while copra – or dried coconut meat – is the country’s largest agricultural export.
Angara said a coconut tree peaks its nut production in 30 years “but in our country there are trees twice that age which are still harvested for nuts even if the annual yield of these ‘senior citizen trees’ is a fifth of their younger counterparts.’”
“There is retirement age for soldiers but none for coconuts, “Angara said, dding that the government should “fix the upstream part” of the “emerging buko market” so supply is guaranteed.
The lawmaker made the statement in the wake Presidentr Aquino’s announcement that two US companies – Pepsi Co. and Vita Coco— committed fresh investments in the country’s coconut industry to meet the international demand for coco water.
According to the President, Vita Coco officials had assured him during his US visit that they intend to invest $15 million in the next four years. [jims vincent capuno]
