Mindanao export revenues double

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Mindanao export revenues doubled last year to $1.7 billion, from $810 million in 2004, with almost half of it contributed by the coconut and rubber industries.
       This was revealed here by Department of Agriculture assistant secretary Clayton Olalia during a Mindanao investment forum on rubber and coconut industries on Friday, attended by at least 300 stakeholders.
       Olalia, the keynote speaker of the forum on behalf of Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganiban, who was in Thailand, said that the coconut industry contributed $563.5 million while rubber $39 million in export revenues accounting for a total of $602.5 million. He said Mindanao contributes the majority, or 58 percent, at 8.6 million tons of national coconut production annually with the biggest produce coming from Regions XI, IX and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
       Region XI’s coconut production was placed at 2.5 million metric tons (MT); Region IX, 1.64 million MT; and ARMM, 1.17 million MT.
       Olalia said the Philippines’ total coconut exports last year amounted to $854 million, where major products include coconut oil (crude and refined), desiccated coconut, copra meal, coco shell charcoal, coco coir and fiber and coconut food products, among others.
       In addition to the traditional products are the breakthroughs of additional coconut produce such as the virgin coconut oil, coco coir and coco flour, Olalia said. He said the coconut export revenues is expected to further increase, citing that $191 million was accounted for the first quarter of this year, which is seven percent more than the $178-million revenues in the same period last year.
       He said the agriculture department has set a goal to develop two million hectares of new agribusiness land by 2010 and about 1.35 million hectares is allocated for coconut farms and most of which is in Mindanao.
       As to the rubber industry, Olalia said that through the years Mindanao has been the major and dominant player producing 99 percent or 315,540 tons last year valued at P8.28 billion at current prices. B. Garcia Jr.