Incoming Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Pinol said he expects the Philippines to regain its status as the top coconut producer in the world under the administration of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte.
“We will replant 600,000 hectares of coconut over the next six years and this is doable because we already counted the seed maps,” Piñol said.
Data from Philippine Statistics Authority showed that as of 2014, some 3.5 million hectares were planted to coconut.
The Philippine Coconut Authority said of the 350 million coconut trees in the country, more than 2 million trees were affected by ‘cocolisap’ disease in 2014.
The Philippines is currently the second leading producer of coconut in the world, next to Indonesia. The country exports over 70 percent of its coconut oil produce. About 80 percent of the shipments go to Europe and United States.
“Our coconut approach will be intercropping so we can have two products,” Piñol said.
He said aside from coconut, the Duterte administration would also rehabilitate the country’s abaca industry and fishery sector.