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By: LITO RULONA,
Correspondent

IT will take more than a year to recover and back on normal growth and production of coconut trees after all provinces recorded negative performance as a result of the El Niño phenomenon which started in July 2015 until middle of this year.

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Engr. Cecilio Y. Clarete, National Economic Development Authority – 10 (Neda10), Chief Economic Development Specialist (CEDS) assigned at Development Research Division made this disclosure during the 3rd quarter Regional Economic Situationer media briefing on Wednesday said a total of 490,213,304

Coco production in Normin post negative performance matured nuts were harvested during the period which is 1.6 percent lower than last year’s number. The province of Bukidnon posted the biggest reduction at 26.6 percent; the province of Camiguin also suffers reduction with only 3.86 percent; Lanao del Norte with 0.15 percent; Misamis Occidental with 1.51 percent while with the less reduction goes to Misamis Oriental with only .29 percent. In the combined production of 453,814 nuts sharing almost 93 percent of the total matured nuts produced during the quarters was contributed by the top three producing provinces in the region; Misamis Occidental, Lanao del Norte and Misamis Oriental.

Copra production went down by five percent from the last year’s output reaching only 111,924 metric tons. Bukidnon exhibited the biggest reduction at 29.5 percent. Derived conversion factor of matured nuts to a kilo of copra was P4.38 per kilo.

Clarete said biggest setback in coconut production is with the Green Nut Production also dropped by almost 12 percent, Lanao del Norte recorded the highest decrease of 89.5 percent followed by Bukidnon with 22.61 percent.

Only the province of Misamis Occidental posted positive growth at almost 42 percent. He said another set-back of the is the volume of coconut commodities exported this quarter decreased by 7.8 percent reaching only 110,929 metric tons. However, due to higher freight on board (FOB)  values of some commodities, total export sales increased by 21 percent amounting to $151.269 Million.

“Coconut chemicals and coconut oil were the top exported commodities during the period grossing at $63.44 Million and $56.330 Million, respectively,” she added. Clerete said what is the best in the coconut farming because the average farm gate price increased during the third quarter from P25.10 per kilograms to P36.22 per kilograms, up by 44 percent. Likewise, average mill gate prices for Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental, and Misamis Oriental went up by 43 percent from P29.80 per kilograms to P42.52 kilograms.

The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Northern Mindanao group said that the number of unproductive coconut trees legally cut during the quarter increased by 173 percent from 3,373 trees in 2015 to 9.20 trees in 2016.

The province of Misamis Occidental and Lanao del Norte reported the most number of the unproductive coconut trees cut at 4,536 trees and 3.075 trees respectively.

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