The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has noticed a drop in copra prices in recent months, but it is still "tolerable," an official said on Monday.
In a phone interview, PCA Eastern Visayas region manager Joel Pilapil stated that the farmgate price of copra has dropped to PHP20 per kilogram as of the first week of March 2023, down from PHP42 in the same period last year, while the current trading price is less than the PHP32.50 recorded in early July 2022 and the PHP22 recorded in December of last year.
According to the official, the current farmgate price is "tolerable" for farmers because the PCA has not received calls from local coconut farmers in the region and palm oil and soybean oil have a combined market share of 35% and 26% of the global oil market, respectively.
The fluctuation of copra prices has impacted 367,234 coconut farmers in the Eastern Visayas region.
Coconut is estimated to support 1.83 million people, or nearly half of the region's 4.4 million people.
Copra refers to the dried meat or kernel of a coconut, which is used to make premium oil and also produces coconut cake after oil extraction, which is primarily used as livestock feed.
Moreover, the office of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said that a coconut farming family earns only PHP35,358 per year, or PHP2,946 per month, less than one-third of the average income of an Eastern Visayas family.
According to NEDA, tenants have a much worse situation because they only receive 50% of their farm produce.
