Coconut industry going backwards: Minister

NATIONAL Planning and Monitoring Minister Charles Abel says it is no secret that the coconut industry is going “backwards”.
He said this in his hometown of Alotau last Friday when launching the Coconut Industry Strategic Plan 2016-2025 which charts a new course for the industry in light of declining prices of copra on the world market.
The occasion, which coincided with World Coconut Day, also saw signing of agreements for the relocation of the Pacific Coconut Gene Bank and supporting quarantine and nursery facilities from Madang to Milne Bay.
Abel said the decline of the coconut industry was evident in the many former and abandoned plantations around Alotau.
“Our economy was so dependent on coconut, and continues to be, but you can see from a production perspective and a commercialisation perspective it is certainly going backwards,” he said.
“It’s very sad to see but there are reasons for these things – mainly commercial reasons.”
According to the plan, industry contributed to the PNG national economy through provision of employment and income for rural households and income for rural households and generation of income from exporting copra, coconut oil (CNO) and virgin coconut oil (VCO) to overseas markets.
It said that on average, the industry contributed over K126.5 million per year to the PNG economy through the export revenue it generated.
“The KIK estimates that over 70 per cent of this is usually transmitted directly to smallholder copra producers,” it said.
“In 2015, the coconut industry ranked fourth in terms of revenue generated by major agricultural crops after palm oil, coffee and cocoa by contributing about 57 per cent (K101 million), while oil palm contributed 13 per cent (K1.086 billion), coffee contributed 24 per cent (K450.3 million) and cocoa contributed 13 per cent (K243 million).
“In terms of world coconut product trade, PNG’s production and exports remain at an average of about 1.1 per cent of the world market share.”
The report cited the 2011 national population Census which stated that 464,328 households were engaged in coconut activities in PNG to either generate income and as food to sustain their livelihoods.
“This represents 35 per cent of the total households in PNG or an estimated 2.6 million people of the total population of the country,” it said.