For week ending December 10, 2009

       The new UCAP chairman, Jesus L. Arranza, came with wife Evelyn. UCAP director, Efren Barlisan and UCAP committee chairpersons Enrique Uy and Greg Ellescas likewise were there to greet members. UCAP vice-chairman, Jomar Lobregat, formally welcomed the members and guests while Greg Ellescas led the invocation. Everyone went home with a door prize apart from the ?exchange gifts? and token prizes for those who participated in the games. The early bird prize went to Thor Olalia, Stolt-Nielsen Philippines while the most colorful checkered attire to Aya Adefuin, Mitsubishi Corp. Living Essentials. The luckiest guy, however, was Tomohiro Yabushita, Minola Refining Corp., who went home with the grand prize, a color TV courtesy of the UCAP chairman.

       The consolidated January-September figure now stands at 1,006,856 MT in copra terms, a decline by 19.5% from 1,251,371 MT at the same time last year. Total revenue at USD610.648 million, however, lagged vastly by 47.8% from prior year at USD1.170 billion. Breakdown of export by commodity is as follows, in MT: copra 7 (nil last year), coconut oil 538,055 (647,135), copra meal 234,245 (378,770), desiccated coconut 88,792 (105,665), oleochemicals as copra 15,515 (60,807); coco shell charcoal 25,869 (13,865), activated carbon 15,394 (15,944), glycerin 14,326 (14,306), fresh coconuts 1,226 (1,028), Others 20,633 (20,228).

       Europe remained the leading market for crude coconut oil with 38,590 MT thereof Netherlands 35,590 MT, Spain 3,000 MT. The US was a close second with 34,606 MT. Other markets include Indonesia 1,000 MT and Taiwan 200 MT. The US, on the other hand, led in cochin oil with 14,120 MT, next was Japan 4,550 MT and Pakistan 20 MT. In term of number of importers, RBD oil is top counting nine countries: Iran 349 MT, Egypt 132 MT, Pakistan 93 MT, Argentina 84 MT, Bangladesh 65 MT, Russia 22 MT, US 18 MT, Europe mainly Netherlands 17 MT, New Zealand 15 MT.

       Shipment of copra meal in September at 31,167 MT went to five countries. Korea maintained leadership with 19,222 MT to comprise 61.7% of total trade. Japan landed second with 4,200 MT (13.9%), with Vietnam a strong third with 3,620 MT (11.6%), then US 3,000 MT (9.6%) and Taiwan 1,124 MT (3.6%).

       Eight countries with volume ranging 102-306 MT collectively contributed 13.5%, namely in decreasing order, Japan, Brazil, Taiwan, Israel, Poland, Korea, Sweden, Czechoslovakia. Twenty-nine other countries with combined volume of 961 MT and market share of 9.1% had purchases ranging from a low of 750 kilograms to a high of 88 MT.

       Buyers of activated carbon counted 19 countries. Around three-fourths (75.3%) of total shipment of 1,926 MT were channeled to eight countries whose uptakes were at least 100 MT. Topping the list was Singapore which captured 329 MT (17.1%), tracked by US 226 MT (11.7%), France 198 MT (10.3%), Germany 168 MT (8.7%), Ghana 154 MT (8.0%), Italy 154 MT (8%), Sri Lanka 121 MT (6.3%) and Japan 100 MT (5.2%). Eleven other countries with total import of 476 MT and market share of 24.7% took in volume ranging 10-83 MT.

       The US used to account for 65 percent of the Philippine 1.5 million metric tons of soybean meal import. But with a smaller import volume this year at 1.11 million MT due to decimated animal population caused by a series of destructive typhoons, the US share dwindled to only 26 percent or 291, 676 MT. Argentina captured 69 percent or 771,137 MT, India took 4 percent or 40,689 MT and Brazil 1 percent or 6,782 MT. Soybean meal provides the protein component in animal feeds, normally comprising 20-25 percent of the feed formula. The Philippines produces around 7.5 million metric tons of animal feed annually.

       Sunflower oil prices have been soaring on expectations of a sharp decline in output in top growers Argentina and Russia. European sunflower oil prices have jumped 15% a ton since early November to around $970 a ton presently. Soya oil supply is expected to swell on the back of a record soybean crop in US and South America but the pace of harvest may be hampered by wet weather and more soya oil may be channeled into the biofuel sector. A shift in demand for palm oil will run down stocks in top producers Malaysia and Indonesia, possibly narrowing the discount that palm oil has with Argentine soya oil in January to June next year, Mr. Mielke noted.

       In a related development, Susanto, head of the marketing division at the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) said the country is on track to hit this year?s export target of about 15.8 million tons, after posting a 16% rise in the first 10 months to October to 12.8 millions tons. Exports may have reached 1.4 million to 1.5 million tons in November, he added. This year?s performance has been stronger than initially expected at the beginning of the year, when the association pegged exports at just 15 million tons.

       R&D activities will focus on the production of new products and technologies and strengthening the capability of the industry to produce value-added palm oil-based products for the domestic and global markets. ?The industry must move away from labor-intensive into knowledge-based if Malaysia wants to remain as the leading player in the global palm oil industry,? Dompok said. Due to the limited land availability for future plantation schemes, palm oil companies had no choice but to diversify and increase their involvement in downstream processing activities, he added.

       The recommendations from the Haut Conseil des Biotechnologies, which are expected to become law in the second half of 2010, include a 0.1 percent threshold for genetically modified material in plant products and animal feed, and propose that public authorities should set a minimum distance between apiaries and fields where GM crops are grown. Labels could then designate plant products as ?GMO-free?, animal products as ?fed on GMO-free feed? or ?derived from animals fed without GM feed?, and honey as ?biotechnology free?.