PALO, Leyte – The Philippine Coconut Authority Administration (PCA) regional office here claimed that based on their accomplishment report, they were able to plant and replant coconut trees in more than 3, 366 hectares of land in the region in 2004 alone.

PCA Regional Manager Edilberto Nierva said the planting and replanting of coconut tree helped the region generate more earnings from foreign and domestic market.

It was reported that there an increase in export of coconut-derived products in 2004 compared to 2003, which could also be attributed to the continued planting and replanting of coconut tree in the region, placing the old and unproductive coconut trees with young and fruit-bearing ones.

Nierva added that if funds would only be increased and available, they can still plant and replant more coconuts in the region that would add to its production and would increase also the earnings of the government.

According to Nierva, there is now a great demand of coconut products such as coco bio-diesel, virgin coconut oil, geotextile and other by products her and abroad, the reason why he is encouraging the people in the region to plant to replant more coconuts.

“I am encouraging other sectors to go into massive planting of coconut trees to meet the demand form us and to help the coconut industry,” Nierva added.

He emphasized that the country still ranks, second in terms of production of coconut products in the world market.

Express learned that the country’s set up in national coconut production is an export of around 80 percent.

Nierva also told Express that time will come when the price of one nut would tremendously increase considering the need of the coconut and also the competition that is getting stiffer

.