US trade expo yields $6-M coconut sales
NUTS OVER COCONUTS
Philippine coconut product makers have affirmed Americans’ sustained love for tropically-grown coconuts and its products as a trade exposition in Maryland late September instantly generated $6 million in sales.
The United Coconut Associations of the Philippines (UCAP) said the US market continues to rave over coconut and its health benefits.
“America still loves our coconuts,” UCAP chairman Dean Lao Jr. said in a briefing on the Maryland east expo roadshow.
The trade mission was supported by the Department of Trade and Industry, Philippine Coconut Authority, Philippine Embassy and attaches in the US.
While there has been misinformation on coconut oil apparently arising from competitor products like soybean oil, UCAP said the sentiment of the US consumer market was to defend coconut products.
Scientific studies have linked medium chain fatty acid (MCFA) content in coconut oil to less incidence of cardiovascular disease in studied populations. MCFA is now widely recognized as the major ingredient in the energy-boosting ketogenic diet.
According to UCAP executive director Yvonne Agustin, exports reached $1.13 billion in the first half or nearly double the $636 million recorded in the same period a year ago.
The private-public sector trade group will carry out more programs to attest to authorities’ scientific proof of coconut oil’s nutritional benefits.
Fabian Dayrit, chairman of Asia-Pacific Coconut Community Scientific Advisory Committee-Health, said APCC has communicated with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) regarding its position against a presidential advisory issued by the American Heart Association that branded coconut oil as a saturated fat and classified it as the same as any animal fat when it is not.
“FAO agreed to a technical meeting among experts in 2018,” Dayrit said.
As the Philippines thrives in exporting virgin coconut oil and semi-processed coconut products in bulk, Lao said it was important for the Philippines to invest in product research. Thailand has led Southeast Asian countries in coconut product innovation.
“Thais invest heavily in consumer products,” he said.
In the future, the Philippines’ coconut trade mission should consist of blue chip companies in the likes of Franklin Baker, Celebes Coconut Corp., Century Pacific Agricultural Ventures, that shall invest in knowing what the consumer market wants and in developing such products.
“We are good in shipping in bulk. (But) consumer products bring higher value,” he said.
Packaging, marketing and distribution strategies are important such that some coconut products get more sales through branding, private labeling and online (internet marketing) distribution.
Some products displayed in the market include privately labeled “Simple Truth” of Kroger, Pure Brazilian Coconut Water, Nutiva high value skin food and coconut buttery oil, and tortilla chips from coconut flour.
Other coconut product innovations are on personal care, petroleum-free consumer goods, low-sugar beverage, probiotic-low carbohydrate products, refrigerated coconut in its entire nut with trimmed husk, marshmallow with coconut, coconut granola, virgin coconut oil in its buttery form for cooking or baking, cooking spray coconut oil and coconut milk creamer.
“Trends point to everything coconut. There’s strong preference for natural and organic, free from GMO, gluten, sugar, palm and with focus on CSR (corporate social responsibility), fair trade, and sustainability,” he said.
Some smaller companies just come up with brands for their coconut products and market them online such as through Amazon.
The public-private trade group also met with Filipino scientists from the Philippine American Academy of Science & Engineering for the conduct of scientific studies on coconut in the future.
UCAP said coconut products are immediately recovering from a 25 percent drop in coconut products sales due to misinformation.