Philippine Coconut Exports Dropped by 14.6% in July to 124,537 metric tons in copra terms, due to largely to a slump in coconut oil shipments during the month.

In the same month last year, exports of coconut products reached 145,801 MT.

The July export volume, according to preliminary data from the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines, was also 21.8 percent lower than the 159,280 MT recorded in the previous month.

Despite a sluggish performance in July, total coconut exports in the first seven months of the year grew by 21.6 percent to 1.04 million MT from 859,323 MT in the same period last year.

From January to July, shipments of coconut oil, reached 556,562 MT (from last year's 431,506 MT); copra meal, 304,601 MT (from 222,698); desiccated coconut, 63,770 MT (from 76,975 MT) and oleochemicals as copra, 62,491 MT (from 55,384 MT).

In July alone, coconut oil exports dropped by 14.4 percent year-on-year to 62,758 MT from 73,302 MT. The major markets for coconut oil during the period were Europe and the United States.

Ucap data also showed that shipments of copra meal in July rose by 9.8 percent to 35,982 MT from 32,770 MT.

Export of desiccated coconut declined by 25 percent to 8,984 MT from its year-ago level of 11,975 MT. Overseas purchases of oleochemicals inched up by 0.9 percent to 11,031 MT from 10,934 MT.

Ucap said there were eight top niche coconut export products in May, each of which had reported export revenue of at least $100,000 during the month.

Topping the list was glycerin with export revenue hitting $2.01 million for the shipment of 1,072 MT of the product. Japan led the uptake with purchases reaching 659 MT, followed by Iran with 100 MT.

Nata de coco ranked second with a recorded revenue of $667,537 from the sale of 655 MT. Virgin coconut oil took the third spot with revenue of $401,443 from the sale of 128 MT.

Coconut shampoo came in fourth with earnings of $394,738, while toilet and bath soap ranked fifth, earning $343,490 from the export of 147 MT of the product.

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