Exporting Mature Coconuts, PH Lazy Juans Will Make China & Malaysia Very, Very Happy!

“MinDA Chief Seeks Lifting Of Ban On Mature Coconut Exports[1]” ANN says (Author Not Named, 04 September 2020, BusinessMirror.com), Facebook sharing by Nestor V Saludo today, 22 November 2020. Mindanao Development Authority, MinDA, Chief Manny Piñol is seeking the exemption of Mindanao from the effects of PD 1106, issued by President Ferdinand Marcos, FM, in 1985, which banned the export of mature and dehusked nuts. Mr Piñol wants PD 1106 to “be lifted to immediately help coconut farmers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic” for Mindanao farmers. Actually, in November 2018 yet, Secretary of Agriculture Manny Piñol already officially requested that such a ban be lifted.

Ah, Mr Piñol, my hero FM believed in simple economic wisdom:

If you sell your raw materials, you’re selling yourself cheap!
Because you are selling your would-be several products as only one cheap product!

If you do that, the Malaysians will love you; the Chinese will love you even more so! You are not competing with them – in fact, you are helping them commercially defeat you!

The best thing to do is to diversify your product line – and you cannot diversify if you are selling the raw material itself!

From the Philippine Coconut Authority, PCA, ANN writes, “Coconut Farmer Groups, Industry Stakeholders Oppose Calls To Allow Export Of Matured Coconuts[2]” (Author Not Named, PCA.gov.ph):

Coconut farmer groups from different parts of the country expressed their opposition against allowing the export of (mature) coconuts as it would result (in) the depletion of raw materials, processed and value-added coco products, loss of jobs, and closing of small to medium businesses.

If you don’t have raw materials, you don’t have processed products; if you don’t have products, you don’t have jobs – with both happening, small to medium businesses will close. Everybody loses!

ANN says:

Piñol said unless the ban is lifted, the country’s coconut farmers, who, he said, are reeling from effects of low copra prices due to the influx of other alternative cooking oils, would not be able to take advantage of the mature coconut market.

Contrariwise, ANN says the PCA has so far received letters, resolutions and manifestos from a total of 94 Small Coconut Farmers Organizations (SCFOs) from the many regions of the country, expressing their opposition to the proposal to export whole coconuts. Let us listen to one statement. Joel Naciongayo, Provincial SCFO Chair of the Province of Zamboanga del Sur composed of 19 municipal SCFOs, says:

What the coconut farmers need is a long-term remedy that will not harm the future of the coconut industry, especially in the province of Zamboanga del Sur. The exportation of (mature) nuts will also cause the depletion of raw materials especially for the banner products of the province which are coco coir, coco sugar and virgin coconut oil (VCO).

That from a Mindanao coconut farmer-leader: If you export your raw material of coconut nuts, you will have no coconut coir, no coconut sugar, and no virgin coconut oil.

In that case, you are committing coconut suicide!@517


[1]https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/09/04/minda-chief-seeks-lifting-of-ban-on-mature-coconut-exports/

[2]https://pca.gov.ph/index.php/10-news/325-coconut-farmer-groups-industry-stakeholders-oppose-calls-to-allow-export-of-matured-coconuts

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