At the Annual General Membership meeting and elections of the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines (UCAP) held last Monday, May 07, 2007 at the UCPB Board Room, 15th Floor, UCPB Building, Makati Avenue, Makati City, the following were elected officers and members of the Board of Directors for the term 2007/2009: Chairman - Danilo M. Coronacion, Philippine Coconut Oil Producers Association (PCOPA); Vice-chairman - Manuel V. del Rosario, Philippine Coconut Producers Federation (COCOFED); Treasurer - Atty. Fernando L. Uy, Philippine Coconut Research and Development Foundation (PCRDF); Secretary - Dean A. Lao, Jr., Philippine Oleochemical Manufacturers Association (POMA).

       Aside from the four officers above, also elected directors were as follows: Jesus L. Arranza, Coconut Oil Refiners Association (CORA); Efren G. Barlisan, PCOPA; Oscar G. Garin, Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA); Jose L. Lobregat, COCOFED; Jose L. Querubin, United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB); Jose T. Quimson, Association of Philippine Coconut Desiccators (APCD); Enrique J. Uy, Association of Coconut Brokers (ACBI).

       Official data from the Philippine Coconut Authority show Philippine export of coconut products in January this year slumped 53.1% year-on-year to 75,277 MT copra terms from 160,445 MT. Aggregate revenue likewise dropped 36.9% to USD42.384 million from USD67.119 million. Massive shortfall in coconut oil shipment dragged overall total. Export of coconut oil shrank 66.1% to 28,777 MT from 84,865 MT. By-product copra meal similarly slashed volume by 57.3% to 20,989 MT from 49,150 MT.

       The Philippine Biofuels Act of 2006 took effect starting last Sunday, May 06. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla was satisfied at the outcome with stakeholders, including the oil companies, having been very supportive of the law. Oil companies began selling at their gas pumps diesel products blended with 1.0 percent coco methyl ester (CME) or coco-biodiesel with no additional cost yet to consumers. Players in the oil industry said DOE talked to them to defer inputting cost adjustments since the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has yet to issue directives on the treatment of value-added tax (VAT) zero rating for biofuels.

       Chevron Philippines which carries the Caltex brand started offering at the pumps its Power Diesel B1 a day earlier at relatively the same price as regular diesel. It reported that sale of its biodiesel blend was already nationwide. Other major oil companies like Petron Corporation and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation have assured customers that their CME-blended diesel will not cause damage to their vehicle engines as the fuel had underwent extensive testing before it was approved for selling at the pumps.

       The Philippine government is joining talks in the harmonization of biofuels standards with ASEAN neighbors Thailand and Indonesia with the end-goal to eventually explore sharing of supply. Department of Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla said major crucial step would be to come up with common standards on biofuels so exports of products among countries will become possible.

       Secretary Lotilla disclosed that Thai Energy Minister Piyavasti Amaranand agreed on a proposal for the Philippines and Thailand to join forces in pursuing the harmonization of biofuels standards in various international fora. In a separate meeting with Indonesia’s special envoy Dr. Alwi Shibab, the energy secretary noted that the line of discussion was centered on exploring the possibility of placing “joint agenda in the coming years as potential exporters of biofuels.” The Secretary added that the main concern was to ensure that the tradability of biofuels and vehicles using biofuels (such as flex-fuel vehicles) is not hampered in the future by artificial barriers to trade.

       A group of international investors are planning to put in 110 million euros for the construction of one of Brazil’s largest biodiesel plants which will be located in the soybean producing municipality of Tibagi in the southern state of Parana. The new biodiesel plant, with production capacity of 1.2 million liters of biodiesel per day, will use soybean as principal feedstock. The plant raw material requirement would amount to one-fifth of Parana’s soybean output per year. Parana is Brazil’s second biggest soybean producing state and is projected to produce 12 million MT of soybean in the 2006/07 harvest. Construction begins in June this year and operation to commence in 2008.

       Brazilian state Rio de Janeiro is to launch a program to collect used cooking oil from restaurants, supermarkets and trash collectors for use as a feedstock for biodiesel. With blending target of 5% biodiesel in fossil diesel, if the program takes off, Rio de Janeiro will be the first Brazilian state to raise a federally mandated, obligatory 2% biodiesel blend to 5%. The obligatory 5% has been legislated yet for 2013, though sources report it could be advanced to as early as 2008-2010.