Biodiesel is only viable if coconut industry is made sustainable -- Recto

Government should guarantee that coconut farms are productive so raw materials for biodiesel won�t run out, Sen. Ralph Recto said after the law requiring all diesel sold locally to be blended with one percent coconut-derived oil took effect Sunday.

"Coconut farms have become our oil fields. 328 million coconut trees have become our oil rigs. But biodiesel can only be viable if the upstream coconut industry is made sustainable," Recto said in urging the government to ensure the steady supply of a major ingredient of biodiesel.

But lately coconut production has been flat, due to aging trees, a virulent pest and the four powerful typhoons which flattened trees in three regions which account for a third of land planted to coconuts, Recto said.

To revitalize the industry on which 3.5 million farmers depend on, Recto said the coco levy fund, the Marcos-era duty on copra sold which has grown into a multi-billion peso account to date, must be used to finance a massive coconut replanting plan.

The P500 million allocation in the P1.126 trillion national budget to assist farmers and rehabilitate farms devastated by typhoons Milenyo, Paeng, Reming and Senyang last year should also be released immediately, Recto said.

The latter is crucial, Recto said, because three regions Bicol, Southern Tagalog, Eastern Visayas pummeled by the four storms account for a third, or 1.083 million hectares, of the 3.11 million hectares of land planted to coconut, and 22 percent of the almost 2.5 million metric tons of annual copra production.

"But the three regions share is expected to go down as Bicol's 365,000 hectares of coconut land have been destroyed, by one account, to the last tree, thus the need for a coconut rescue plan," Recto said.

Aside from rehabilitating coconut farms, the two sources of funds the coco levy and the national budget should also be used to battle infestation by the coconut hispine beetle, which has wreaked havoc on coconut farms from Luzon to Mindanao.

After ravaging coconut farms in Indonesia, Thailand, Maldives, Vietnam and China, the Brontospina beetle which feeds on young leaves, preventing the palm from bearing fruits was believed to have entered the country's southern backdoor by way of palm trees imported from Malaysia.

With coconut oil no longer just a food item and now being used as car fuel, in addition to the growing global demand for the healthy virgin coconut oil or VCO, all the more that the coconut industry must be supported, Recto said.

Eight billion liters of diesel are expected to be sold this year. The legislated one percent blend would require 80 million liters of coco methyl ester or CME to be produced.