Coconut oil shipments from the Philippines, world's biggest supplier, slumped 34 percent last month as demand from China declined.

Exports fell to 49,820 metric tons from 75,391 tons a year earlier, United Coconut Associations of the Philippines Inc. executive director Yvonne Agustin said in a phone interview yesterday, citing preliminary data from members. Still, shipments gained 19 percent to 602,988 tons in the first eight months of the year, she said. Final number for August will be released next month.

Prices for coconut oil, used in food and cosmetics, tumbled from a record in June amid wider declines in vegetable oils. Some importers have delayed purchases on speculation that prices will continue to drop.

"There was not much demand from China before and during the Olympics," Danilo Coronacion, chief executive of CIIF Oil Mills Group, the nation's largest coconut oil producer, said by telephone. Buyers from India also delayed orders, hoping to renegotiate a lower price, he said.

Coconut oil delivered to Rotterdam fell 29 percent by Aug. 29 from the all time high of $1,700 a ton on June 9 as demand slumped, said Amrizal Idroes, marketing officer of the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community, a group of the 15 biggest producing countries, that account for 90 percent of global supply.

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