21 December 2006
By Ephraim Aguilar
Legazpi City
THE MASSIVE DAMAGE TO coconut trees after three straight typhoons battered the Bicol region in the past three months is seen to limit big coconut industry players here and will have an impact on Bicol’s traditional cuisine of vegetables cooked in “gata” or coconut cream.
Josefina Loremia, 50, a vendor at the Legazpi City Public Market has no choice but to almost double the price of the coconuts she is selling now at P15, P18, and P20 depending on the size, saying it has been the highest price tag of the coconut in her seven years as market vendor.
“[With] very little supply of coconuts after the typhoon, I have to increase my prices since the supplier also increased his price,” Loremia said.
All 59 million coconut trees were damaged in varying degrees by Typhoons “Milenyo,” “Seniang” and “Reming,” which triggered mudflows from Mayon Volcano in Albay and buried at least 250 hectares of land planted to coconut, based on initial reports, according to Alfredo Rillo, general manager of the Philippine Coconut Authority (Philcoa) in Bicol.
In Bicol, Camarines Sur had the largest areas planted to coconut followed by Masbate, Camarines Norte, Albay, Sorsogon, and Catanduanes.
The coconut industry contributes 33.4 percent of the regional Growth Domestic Product (GDP) in Bicol.
Rillo said damage from the three typhoons amounted to P1.7 billion if the value of the nut is pegged at P4 each.
He said the cost of damage is 22 percent of the potential annual industry income of P8 billion.
Damage assessment
1.8 million coconut trees or 3 percent of 59 million coconut trees in the Bicol were either toppled or buried under volcanic debris
21.7 million or 18 percent of the total were heavily damaged and would require three years or more to rehabilitate; they are at great risk of dying
19 million or 17 percent of the total were moderately damaged
16 million trees slightly damaged; their rehabilitation to take 1 to 2 years.
Industry impact
The immediate effects of this massive damage would be felt directly by the 290,000 coconut farmers in the region and indirectly by other small stakeholders in the coconut industry, Rillo said.
“The people who carry loads of copra for money, coal vendors, workers of oil mills and weavers of coir-based products would also be affected,” he said.
Rillo foresees that the shortage of raw materials will adversely affect the big industry players in the region, who are mostly in Albay.
“Just in Albay, we have three big oil mills and the Juboken Enterprises in Camalig town, which is now one of the country’s major exporters of coir-based products,” said Rillo.
Earlier, Justino Arboleda, chief executive officer of the Coco Technologies Corp. and owner of Juboken Enterprises, said they lost about P2 million in sales after “Milenyo,” which delayed their exports.
Cocotech is a world-recognized provider of coconets made from cocofiber, a bioengineering technology used for soil erosion control, which are being exported to countries like Japan, Korea, Netherlands and the United States.
Rehabilitation plan
Rillo said they have proposed to the Philcoa central office and to the CIIF (Coconut Industry Investment Fund) Oil Mills Group a P67-million rehabilitation plan which only covers the replanting of totally damaged trees.
There is a P42-million rehabilitation plan submitted to the Department of Agriculture-Bicol, which covers the Philcoa-Bicol’s medium-term plan to fertilize the moderately damaged trees and speed up their recovery, he added.
Rillo said the amount would come from the P250 million the DA-Bicol would try to acquire from government funds and the Food Agriculture Organization, an internationally funded organization under the United Nations that provides assistance to agricultural sectors in its member-countries.
The DA-Bicol would also allot P500,000 to provide materials for planting short term crops for worst-affected coconut farmers as an alternative livelihood.
Rillo said another problem was the lack of sources of seed nuts for replanting totally damaged trees since the Samar-Leyte region, which was a potential source of materials after “Milenyo,” was also battered by “Seniang” just last week.
Rillo said, the Bicolanos, also have a high consumption of coconut, primarily since delicacies are coconut-based and there are other nonfood applications.
Loremia said market-goers still bought coconut from her despite the big increase in prices simply because food cooked in “gata” or coconut cream is a mainstay on the dining table of Bicolanos.
No comments:
Post a Comment