Manila, Nov 26 - The Philippines expects its coconut oil exports to reach at least 1 million tonnes in 2009, with both output and demand expected to recover, a senior government official said on Wednesday.
The Southeast Asian nation, the world's biggest exporter of coconut oil, was aiming to export 1 million tonnes this year but officials said full-year shipments may only reach 850,000 tonnes, less than the 886,561 tonnes exported in 2007.
"Buying has been very slow mainly because of the global financial crisis," Arturo Liquete, deputy administrator of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), told reporters. "Investors in commodities are picking those which offer the best returns."
Demand may recover next year with coconut oil prices coming down, officials said.
Prices of the vegetable oil have fallen to $710-$720 per tonne CIF Rotterdam on Tuesday from around $1,500 in April.
The Philippines also expects production of copra, or dried coconut meat from which oil is extracted, to reach 2.77 million tonnes next year from a projected 2.5 million tonnes in 2008, Liquete said.
The country sells four-fifths of its coconut oil production overseas but accounts for less than 5 percent of the global fats and oils market partly due to the growing popularity of other vegetable oils and the crop devastation from typhoons in the past two years.
Some European buyers of coconut oil -- used in food, cosmetics and biodiesel -- have also shifted to the cheaper palm kernel oil.
The Philippines' coconut oil exports fell for the third straight month in September, taking shipments for the first nine months of 2008 to 647,135 tonnes, up 11.7 percent from the same period last year, latest government data showed.
Officials said the coconut authority is undertaking a programme to raise fertiliser use among farmers to boost copra output to more than 3 million tonnes over the next few years.
Production of copra reached a record 2.8 million tonnes in 2001 and industry officials have said the country has capacity to process up to 5 million tonnes of the coconut kernel.