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NUTS OVER COCONUT! At the 7th National Coconut Festival held from August 7 to 10 at the Megatrade Hall in Mandaluyong City, guests were introduced to new coco health products, both edible and un, much to their amazement and celebration. New health products that caught the eye of festival-goers included the coco sap beverages, coco skim milk beverages, gluten-free coconut flour, and fiber rich low sugar food products. Last year, in the same coco festival, we were won by coco sugar, nutritious sugar made from coconut sap, which is supposed to be good for diabetics. Other previous revelations from the annual festival include Virgin Coconut Oil in its many variations, including VCO for massage therapy and well-being. In festivals past, also highlighted were other coco-based inventions like coco fiber geo textiles and coco biodiesel. Spread out in at least 75 booths at Megatrade Hall B of SM were products and services that summed up the present state of the country's coconut industry, an industry that employs 23 million Filipinos, 3.4 million of whom are farmers. Nurture 324 million coconut trees planted on 3.1 million hectares. A few picks from the fair: Coconut dietary fiber and food supplement offered by the Davao based PTCOCO Agri-Ventures; VCO blended essences, perfumes, skin moisturizer, and sunblock that beautifies and relaxes from Coco Zen; all-natural vinegar made from coconut nectar from Lola Conching's Sorsogon Foods Enterprises; coconut honey, coco vodka, coco lip balm and VCO shampoo from Quezon's Best coco fiber pots and cocopeat bricks from Coco Green; coco ice cream from Coconut House; living room panels, bags, trinkets, and fashion accessories from a shop called Islander. At the Sorsogon booth, we chanced upon fresh, ice cold tuba, a drink that I had been pining for and missing for years. Tuba is the sweet nectar of sap or toddy. The toddy transforms into many things under different preparations. It becomes lambanog when distilled vinegar when fermented coco honey and coco sugar when cooked. All of these were available in that little booth from Sorsogon, many of whose products, according to Thelma Tolentino of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) have won awards. The country's coconut industry has remained a strong pillar of the national economy. According to PCA Administrator Oscar G. Garin, the coconut has maintained its position as the top agricultural crop exported in many forms, either as food or non-food classified as traditional or non-traditional, to 130 countries. The country's coconut industry has an annual average exports income of $800 million. In the years 1979, 1995 and 2007, Garin proudly stated that RP's coconut exports reached the $1 billion level. The month of August, according to Garin, is traditionally the peak of coconut fruiting season. Which explains why coconut festival is mounted within the month as a tribute to the versatility of the so-called Tree of Life. Mounted as the centerpiece of the 2008 National Coconut Week, now in its 22nd year, the Coconut Festival had for its theme Kasagananan at Kaunlaran sa Pinagyamang Niyugan (Sufficiency and Prosperity through Coconut Productivity). The festival was celebrated in the wake of government's National Coconut Productivity Program, which recently welcomed to the industry nine million seednuts. The seednuts are now taking roots nationwide through PCA's participatory planting project. At the same time, Garin announced that productivity of 10 million more coconut trees has been enhanced through a process called Salt Fertilization. The PCA is spearheading a campaign among farmers to fertilize their coconut farms with two kilos of salt per tree per year for three years to increase yield by at least 25 percent. Salt fertilization is believed to increase thickness of coconut meat and also increase the number of nuts harvested. The procedure is also credited for making coconut trees resistant to drought, pests and diseases. Philippine Panorama
August 31, 2008
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