Low copra prices bedevil coco farmers

DAVAO CITY: Faced by widespread low buying prices of copra in the Davao Region and growing complaints of coconut farmers, the coconut industry cluster here is bent on setting up a trading firm to be owned by coconut farmers’ cooperatives.

“Coconut farmers are still griping about low buying prices of copra, it’s about time they set up their own trading outfit to sell copra directly to oil mills and get better buying prices,” says coconut cluster coordinator Rosella Villaruel, a project officer of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), in a recent monitoring report early this year to consultants of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).