US firm open to increasing coconut oil orders by 40%

US-BASED organic food brand Nutiva is looking to hike its orders of coconut oil from the Philippines by 40% next year due to growing demand for the product, an official said yesterday.

John W. Roulac, president and chief executive officer of Nutiva said in a briefing in Makati City that they are looking

at growing the volume of coconut oil imports from the Philippines by 40% next year from the current six to eight containers with 220,000 pounds bought per month.

“People can’t live without coconut oil. They use it on their hair, for massage, for cooking,” he said.

He said that while some people have shifted to using palm oil instead of coconut oil, those living in the US still prefer to buy coconut oil.

“We would like to say it [coconut oil] is the world’s all-purpose oil,” he said.

All coconut oil products sold by Nutiva, he said, come from the Philippines.

“We source from the Philippines because the quality is good,” he said.

The coconut oil bought from the Philippines, he said, is packed and then sold to stores in the US and in Canada.

At the same event, Philippine Coconut Authority Administrator Euclides G. Forbes said he expects the country’s coconut oil exports to recover in the latter part of the year as prices are improving and copra production picks up.

“Prices and production are getting better. The situation in Europe is also improving so we expect demand to go up,” he said.

Data from the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines, Inc. showed that coconut oil exports for the January-to-September period declined 41.9% to 632,680 metric tons (MT) from the 1.089 million MT in the same period last year due to lower copra supply and demand.