Targets of the newly commenced Coconut Summit is to “REVIVE, VALUE ADDING and R&D Market!” for the Coco industry. It also serve as the convergence of the different National Government Agencies such as the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Compostela Valley State College (CVSC) and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to pool their resources in order to revive the industry.
One of the main highlights of the summit was to directly link the Coconut Farmers to different investors giving them a good pricing opportunity. Three big markets attended the summit that day; Franklin Bayer, First in Commodities Marketing, Inc. (FIC) and Legaspi Oil in Maco.
According to the OIC -PCA Administrator Ruel Rosales, the government is currently working to address the concerns of Coconut Farmers through the different Component Ventures namely; Coco Hybridization, Farm Venture, Agri-Biotech Venture, Bio Fuel Venture and the Food and Non-food Ventures as part of the “New Thinking in Coconut Industry” in the Philippines.
The DOST thru its R & D Program offers to add value to local products and processes thru Science and Technology interventions such us product quality improvement, SET-UP program (acquisition of equipment for processing), cost minimization, and other operation-related activities.
Land Bank of the Philippines also presented its Coconut Production and Processing Financing Program that offers a loan even to small farmers (below 5 hectares) for coconut planting and development projects.
The event was also attended by the MinDA new Chairman Manny Piñol who supported the event and made it sure in supporting the Coconut Framers thru market-linkaging.
“Coconut Farmers should be involved in added-value production, dapat matudloan sila ug buhat ug virgin coconut oil ug uban pang value added products.” And aside from that, Minda, since we are involve in marketing promotions, nagapangita pud mi ug merkado for our matured and young coconut, but at the same time makatabang sa atuang advocacy nga madala sa barangay level ang processing facilities para makabuhat ang mga farmers ug produkto nga high-value,” the MinDa chief said. (Jasteen P. Abella, ID COMVAL)
A total of 300 Coconut Farmers and stakeholders attended the “1st Comval Coconut Summit” held at the Provincial Capitol of Compostela Valley on November 27, 2019. (Photo by: M. Lasaca, PS Comval)
