A typhoon that pummelled a large part of the Philippines early last week damaged about 13% of its coconut trees, the government said, further clouding the already weak prospects for the nation’s most valuable agricultural export this year.

United Coconut Associations of the Philippines has so far retained its estimate of a 24.5% drop in coconut oil exports this year to 850,000 tons, but had already warned that fast-spreading pest infestation could further hurt output.

Typhoon Rammasun, which killed at least 54 people in the Philippines, is the strongest storm to hit the Southeast Asian country after Super Typhoon Haiyan in November last year.

Rammasun’s strong winds left 1.45 million coconut trees totally felled or crownless, while more than 43 million trees were slightly damaged, the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) said.

Just last month, the PCA said a fast-spreading insect infestation had damaged more than 2 million coconut trees in the world’s top exporter of coconut oil.

Still reeling from damage to about a tenth of its estimated 340 million coconut trees from Haiyan, the country has taken emergency measures to head off the infestation that it fears could severely cripple its coconut exports.

Rammasun crossed the Philippines’ major coconut plantations in both the Bicol and Southern Tagalog regions, with more than a million trees totally felled or left crownless in the hardest-hit Camarines Sur province alone, the PCA said in a report seen by Reuters on Friday. Damaged trees in Batangas, Cavite and Quezon provinces totalled 355,000, according to the report submitted to Secretary Francis Pangilinan, the country’s food security chief.

“The PCA will validate the exact damage in coconut population, number of farmers affected and the total income losses,” PCA Deputy Administrator Roel M. Rosales said in the report.

The country’s annual exports of coconut products, including coconut oil, averaged $1.3 billion in the past two years. Preliminary industry data showed January-May coconut oil shipments plunged 49% from a year ago to 302,297 tons as a result of the typhoon devastation in November. United Coconut Associations of the Philippines, which for now has retained its estimate for a 24.5% drop in coconut oil exports this year to 850,000 tons, has said the insect infestation could further hurt output.

Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/