This month?s Cocohouse luncheon will be held noontime on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at the Valle Verde Country Club, Capt. Henry Javier St., Bo. Ugong, Pasig City, Metro Manila. This month?s Cocohouse host is the Association of Philippine Coconut Desiccators (APCD). The group has invited Dr. Vaughn Montes, Senior Vice President, Citibank, to make a presentation on the subject ?Understanding Today?s Global Economy?

       House Speaker Prospero Nograles sees no need to suspend the implementation of the Philippine Biofuels Law due to emerging problem on world food security, saying early this week that the increasing cost of food commodities worldwide could be largely blamed on the upward movement of fuel prices, which in turn, increases the cost of food production. ?Food and fuel are like siamese twins, they can?t be separated. If the price of the fuel is high, it is inevitable the cost of anything related to food production also shoots up. You need fuel to power up your agricultural machineries and you need fuel to transport your goods from farm to market?, he said.

       Dr. Maria Judith Rodriguez, of Philippine Coconut Authority-Albay Research Center (PCA-ARC), has tapped the potential of makapuno (mutant coconut) as an ice cream stabilizer. The PCA-ARC researcher developed a method of isolating galactomannan, a compound that helps ice cream not to melt easily, from makapuno. This compound also makes salad-dressing stay in its right consistency.

       Figures from USDA show U.S. import of lauric oils in February this year amounted to 37,806 MT, an appreciable reduction by 23.3% from February year-before at 49,278 MT. Of this total, coconut oil accounted for 74.4% or 28,126 MT (31,169 MT in the prior year) while palm kernel oil shared 25.6% or 9,680 MT (18,109 MT). Malaysia was this month?s top lauric oil supplier with 14,470 MT (18,124 MT), dislodging the Philippines which traditionally takes the lead. Delivery from Malaysia, which accounted for 38.3% of total, consisted of 7,790 MT (15 MT) coconut oil and 6,680 MT (18,109 MT) palm kernel oil representing 38.3% of the pack. Import from the Philippines was solely coconut oil at 14,193 MT (30,329 MT) for a 37.5% market share. Shipment from Indonesia was 9,143 MT (824 MT) of which 6,143 MT (824 MT) was coconut oil and 3,000 MT (nil) palm kernel oil and contributed 24.2%.

       Figures from Oil World show China imported 78,100 MT of lauric oils in February this year. This is a whopping increase by 105% from same period year-ago total at 38,100 MT. China?s import was largely palm kernel oil accounting for 65.7% of total or 51,300 MT; coconut oil was 26,800 MT or 34.3%. Major supplier was Indonesia delivering 72,000 MT consisting of 45,600 MT (30,900 MT last year) of palm kernel oil and 26,400 MT (3,200 MT) of coconut oil. Malaysia shared 5,700 MT (3,500 MT) of palm kernel only. The Philippines shipped solely coconut oil at 300 MT (400 MT) and other countries supplied 100 MT of coconut oil (100 MT).

       The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) reports palm oil end-of-month stocks fell to 1.820 million MT in March from the record 1.926 million MT in the previous month. The drawdown came as exports leaped 16.8% to 1.244 million MT from 1.065 million MT in February amid slower growth in output. During the month, production rose 5.5% to 1.296 million MT from 1.228 million MT in February.

       USDA?s chief scientific research agency, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has developed three new safflower germplasm lines that can survive winter. ARS scientists in Pullman, Washington dubbed the three germplasm lines WSRC01, WSRC02 and WSRC03 which owe their superior winter hardiness to three Chinese safflower accessions maintained at the ARS Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research Unit in Pullman. ARS agronomist Richard C. Johnson said the newly developed safflower varieties offer farmers a number of benefits. Among these are the option of fall plantings, winter ground cover, rotation with other crops like wheat, better weed control, improved water-use efficiency, and higher seed yields than spring-planted safflower crops.

       Winter hardiness, which has been lacking in existing varieties, could expand safflower use in the West and the Southern Great Plains. The new safflower lines are adapted to many sites in these regions and mark the first U.S. safflower releases specifically for that trait. During the field trials in eastern Washington State, the three lines showed winter hardiness superior to cold-tolerant safflowers that were used as experimental controls for comparison. On average, the lines seed contained 80 percent linoleic acid and 14 percent oleic fatty acid. Johnson, who is handling seed requests, co-developed the safflower germplasm lines with fellow ARS agronomist Vicki Bradley, Professor Li Daque at the Beijing Botanical Gardens in China also collaborated.