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EXPORT
earnings from agro-based products for the first five
months of the year went down by 5.27 percent, to $875.43
million, as the country’s shipments of coconut oil (CNO)—considered
the Philippines’ top farm export—continued its slide in
May.
Preliminary data released by the National Statistics
Office (NSO) show that during January to May of this
year, earnings from CNO slid by 28.35 percent, to
$203.68 million, from $284.28 million registered a year
ago.
Based on
NSO data, the country’s CNO shipments accounted for
almost 25 percent of the value of all agro-based
products shipped out by the country for January to May.
The
continuous decline in sales from CNO is in line with
earlier projections made by the Philippine Coconut
Authority and industry analysts that the country would
ship out less CNO this year because of the expected
decline in copra production.
NSO
figures also show that other traditional farm exports,
like mangoes and bananas, registered a decrease in
export receipts.
Earnings
from mango exports for the first five months of the year
went down by 12.7 percent, to $11.6 million, from the
$13.29 million registered during the same period in
2006. Earnings from banana shipments also went down by
almost 4 percent, to $162.81 million, from January to
May.
Seaweeds, considered one of the traditional export
winners of the Philippines, also went down by 32.14
percent, to $8.53 million, during the period, bolstering
the claims of seaweed exporters that the strengthening
of the peso could cause a decline in their shipments
abroad.
Earlier,
University of the
Philippines
economist Benjamin Diokno said other exporters, such as
those in the agriculture sector, would have a hard time
propping up the country’s exports this year due to the
strengthening of the peso, which makes their products
less competitive.
The
Department of Agriculture (DA) has been targeting to
grow export earnings from agriculture products by 18
percent to $4.5 billion this year.
Agro-fishery exports in 2006 were estimated to have
reached almost $3.8 billion as the country’s traditional
agro-based exports posted increases in sales.
The top
10 agricultural and fishery exports for last year were
coconut oil, fresh bananas, processed and fresh
pineapple, dessicated coconut, manufactured tobacco,
tuna, shrimps and prawns, manufactured fertilizer, milk
and cream and carageenan.
The DA
earlier said it plans to increase shipments in
agricultural exports this year through an aggressive
marketing campaign to promote local products in
traditional and new foreign markets. |
