For week ending Jun 19, 2008

       Following are the special awards winners: First 3 Consecutive Strikes (Female) – Choy Asong (UCPB); First 4 Consecutive Strikes (Male) – Gerry Zabat ( Minola); First 5 Consecutive Spares (Male) – Roy Pedrosa (Sakamoto); First Split Conversion (Male, Female) – Annie Macato (Inter-Asia Marine), Arnel Valles (UCPB); Club 200 (Male) – Joven Plan (Cargill, 222), Ton Carabeo (UCPB, 200, 211); Club 175 (Female) – Jojie Milan (Sakamoto, 182), Angie Pacumberto (Minola, 178), Choy Asong (UCPB, 178), Annie Macato (Inter-Asia Marine, 177).

       It’s all systems go for the Cocohouse luncheon, noontime on Tuesday, June 24, 2008, at the Cava Bar and Restaurant, #7912 Somerset Olympia Bldg., Makati Ave., Makati City. The Philippine Oleochemical Manufacturers Association (POMA) will host this month’s Cocohouse event. Dr. Jaime Z. Galvez-Tan, former Department of Health Secretary, will be the guest speaker and will talk on traditional medicine, natural cures, and coconut.

       Total export for the first quarter of this year tallied 458,339 MT in copra terms, a massive 83.6% growth over 249,594 MT at the same time last year. Breakdown is as follows, in MT: coconut oil 247,145 (111,749), copra meal 149,813 (65,309), desiccated coconut 25,347 (31,212), oleochemicals as copra 26,858 (23,958), coco shell charcoal 4,041 (3,480), activated carbon 6,728 (6,214), glycerin 5,202 (1,435), fresh coconuts 312 (232), Others 7,013 (5,991).

       The US was top destination for crude coconut oil with 18,979 MT, tracked by Malaysia with 13,900 MT, and Europe with 12,250 MT thereof Italy 8,500 MT, Spain 3,750 MT. Other markets were Japan 1,500 MT, Taiwan 264 MT, Iran 133 MT, China 40 MT. The US also took the lead in cochin oil with purchases of 11,543 MT, followed by Japan at 4,050 MT and China at 395 MT. RBD oil had the most number of buyers led by Japan with 1,500 MT and joined by eight others namely Russia 285 MT, Iran 205 MT, Syria 112 MT, Taiwan 105 MT, Israel 86 MT, Europe (Bulgaria) 63 MT, Pakistan 61 MT, Australia 1 MT.

       Korea continued to dominate in copra meal trade. In March, deliveries at 43,571 MT represented 82.9% of total sales. Vietnam similarly remained in the second spot with 6,430 MT to account for 12.2%. Other countries took in much lower volume namely Taiwan at 1,547 MT, New Zealand 820 MT, Hongkong 178 MT, which jointly comprised 4.8% of the market.

       Desiccated coconut was sold to 38 countries in March, of which 13 took in more than 100 MT with combined market share of 88.3%. The United States remained the market leader with uptake at 1,954 MT comprising 25.6% of total while second placer United Kingdom at 1,043 MT was responsible for 13.7%. Other major buyers namely Belgium 857 MT, Netherlands 723 MT, and Canada 652 MT together accounted for 29.3%. Completing the top 13 buyers’ list (volume range of 146-288 MT) are as follows, in descending order: Russia, Germany, Turkey, France, Taiwan, South Africa, Sweden, Japan, which collectively made up 19.7%. Twenty-five countries whose uptake ranged 9-99 MT and purchases aggregating 890 MT jointly contributed 11.7%.

       In the case of activated carbon, France was top importer in March dislodging perennial market leader Japan which slid to 7th place in 13 slots. Shipment to France at 330 MT accounted for 34.2%. Trailing behind were South Africa with 223 MT (23.1%) and Ghana with 154 MT (16.0%). The remaining 10 destinations whose total load was 258 MT held volume ranging 6-44 MT and market share of 26.7%.

       The EU has urged exporters to pre-register their chemical products from June to December this year to have continued access to the EU market. A chemical that is not pre-registered by December 1, 2008 will lose access to the EU market after that date, until it has been fully registered with the European Chemicals Agency. Under the REACH policy, a chemical substance whether by itself or used in preparations either manufactured or imported into the EU in amounts greater than one metric ton per year must be registered together with information on properties, uses, and safety guidelines.

       Cumulative figure for January-April stood at 252,718 MT, a substantial increase by 22.3% from a comparable year-ago period data at 206,707 MT. The total was composed of 180,553 MT (113,418 MT) coconut oil and 72,165 MT (93,289 MT) palm kernel oil. Shipment from the Philippines was still the biggest at 133,525 MT (103,550 MT) of coconut oil, followed by Malaysia at 75,996 MT (83,836 MT) which was a mix of 61,065 MT (83,790 MT) palm kernel oil and 14,931 MT (46 MT) coconut oil, then Indonesia at 43,197 MT (19,321 MT) of which 32,097 MT (9,822 MT) was coconut oil and 11,100 MT (9,499 MT) was palm kernel oil.

       At least three states, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Tamil Nadu will benefit from the government’s decision to distribute edible oils to poor families as part of its measure to provide relief to consumers against rising cost. A senior industry official said that one liter of cooking oil will be given to each family considered to be below the poverty line under the Public Distribution System (PDS). The government has ordered state-owned trading agencies MMTC, STC, PEC and leading cooperative Nafed to import 1million MT of edible oils in order to meet the requirements of the PDS.

       Starting July 1, New York City eateries must take out artificial trans fats from all menu items, a report fro New York says. Last year, the Health Department ban on trans fat applied only to fry oils and spreads; it now includes baked goods, frozen foods, cannoli and doughnuts. Exempt from the ban are foods served in original sealed packaging such as candy and crackers. The health department survey indicated an almost 100% compliance, about 98%, of inspected restaurants.