For week ending Feb. 09, 2006

       Cocohouse’s Valentine luncheon speaker, Dr. Gary S. Sy, Medical Director of Life Extension Medical Center, diplomate in Gerontology and Geriatrics, Diet-nutrition Therapy advocate, Manila Bulletin columnist (Life Extension), will talk about health and wellbeing and disease prevention, specifically on Complimentary Medicine for Health and Wellbeing. The event, which is only a few days away, will happen next week (Tuesday, noontime), at the Bacolod Chicken Inasal restaurant, 140 Jupiter St., Bel-Air 2, Makati City. A surprise gift awaits members wearing something red.

       January-October exports aggregated 1,632,521 MT copra terms, topping by 9.3% the volume at the same time a year ago of 1,494,217 MT. Breakdown is a follows, in MT: coconut oil 860,250 (805,675), copra meal 334,396 (300,974), desiccated coconut 104,967 (84,000), oleochemicals as copra 104,758 (85,498), coco shell charcoal 21,551 (23,095), activated carbon 28,445 (26,643), glycerine 15,399 (12,442), fresh coconuts 2,569 (2,296), Others 21,075 (22,769).

       The next three biggest buyers were Korea (5,500 MT), Japan (4,100 MT) and Malaysia (4,015 MT). Export to Malaysia was solely CNO. Korea took in mostly CNO at 4,000 MT and smaller volume of cochin oil at 1,500 MT while Japan had more cochin oil at 2,300 MT than CNO at 1,800 MT. On a smaller scale, export to Taiwan was largely CNO at 75 MT and a limited amount of cochin oil at 17 MT; while China held more cochin oil at 154 MT than CNO at 15 MT. Others imported only cochin oil namely, Argentina (178 MT), Myannmar (95 MT), Russia (55 MT) and still others took in only CNO like Pakistan (42 MT), Israel (15 MT).

       Korea maintained its leadership in the copra meal market and in October imported a total of 30,800 MT comprising of 69.7% of the market. Likewise, Vietnam remained in the second spot with 9,400 MT and shared 21.3%. Other buyers were Singapore with 3,500 MT, Taiwan 325 MT, and China 162 MT.

       There were 46 country destinations for desiccated coconut of which the United States was market leader with 2,113 MT (21.1% share). A group of eight countries with volume range of 524-941 MT was responsible for 53.4% and comprised of the following in descending order: Belgium, Australia, United Kingdom, Turkey, Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Taiwan. Another group consisting of 10 countries with lower volume range of 100-272 MT accounted for 15.2%, namely France, Singapore, Croatia, Israel, Poland, Czechoslovakia, South Africa, New Zealand, Japan, Brazil. The largest group made up of 27 countries and with volume range of 10-88 MT represented 10.3% to total sales.

       Activated carbon had 18 more markets than coco shell charcoal during the month with Japan and the United States virtually sharing the highest spots, with 724 MT (29.9%) and 721 MT (29.7%), respectively. Completing the top five markets were: Belgium with 180 MT (7.4%), Singapore 154 MT (6.4%), and United Kingdom 104 MT (4.3%). Nearly a quarter (22.4%) of importers numbering 18 belonged to the 20-76 MT range with combined volume of 543 MT.

       PCA Administrator Jesus Emmanuel M. Paras welcomed Flying V’s initiative saying the Center will boost multi-sector efforts to promote and propagate the use of alternative fuels, particularly coco-biodiesel as the answer to the now critical problem of air pollution in the country. Apart from the coco-biodiesel blend (B1), the Center will also dispense fuel ethanol (E10) for gasoline-run vehicles. Flying V is the first and the only oil company in the country to dispense pre-blended coco-biodiesel directly from the pumps since launching the product in August last year. To date, there are now 42 Flying V stations all over the country offering the product.

       In a related development, the Indian government cut the tariff values for crude soybean oil and crude palm oil, with effect January 31, 2006, as follows: soybean oil by $8/MT to $484/MT; palm oil by $3/MT to $412/MT. Also, tariff value for RBD palm oil was cut by $3/MT to $427/MT as well as all other palm oils by the same figure to $420/MT. Tariff values for crude palm olein was down by $3 to $434/MT, likewise with RBD palm olein by $3 to $440/MT.

       On the significance of the study, she informed of the high level of omega-6 fatty acids in modern American diets, mostly in the form of vegetable seed oils like corn oil, at over 25 times the level of the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids found in canola and fish oils and green vegetables. She also noted that over the last 60 years, the rate of prostate cancer in the U.S. has steadily increased along with the intake of omega-6, suggesting a possible link with intake of omega-6.

       Mr. Nixon Juan of Silk Road, International Trading Corp., wrote to inform that Chinese import duty on coconut oil from the Philippines was 10% in 2004 while Indonesian and Malaysian coconut oil were at 5%. Last year (2005), Philippine coconut oil was levied 9.5% import duty as opposed to zero for Indonesian and Malaysian coconut oil. This explains for the most part for the disappointing drop in coconut oil import from the Philippines last year. The letter was in connection with last week’s UWB news item on ASEAN-China FTA Early Harvest Program.