RP coconut earnings soar

Sat, 15 Jul 1995 | Source: REUTERS

MANILA (Reuter): Philippine coconut industry earnings in the first five months of 1995 jumped 155.97 percent to US$414.355 million from $161.879 million a year earlier, a private industry trade group said.

The United Coconut Associations of the Philippines (UCAP) said in a report the strong recovery of the industry from a drought- hit 1994 was led by coconut oil sales, which climbed to $355.434 million against $116.227 million. Copra meal sales reached $30.893 million from $15.287 million.

UCAP said the January-May sales were "just 44 percent shy of last year's annual revenue of $739.6 million".

The government's Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) had forecast that earnings this year would approach the record $1 billion recorded in 1979.

The coconut industry employs three million people and is the country's leading agricultural export earner.

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