Shipments of coconut oil from the Philippines plunged nearly 47 percent in April from the same month last year because of damage caused by typhoons last year, an industry group said on Monday. Preliminary data showed the country, the world's largest supplier of coconut oil, had shipped 84,147 tonnes in April compared with actual exports of 158,545 tonnes in the same month last year.
"Nearby supplies remain tight," Yvonne Agustin, executive director of the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines, Inc (UCAP), told Reuters. "The impact of the typhoons last year will be felt for the whole of this year," she added.
The initial number in April brought total shipments in the first four months of the year to 190,710 tonnes, less than half the 424,081 tonnes exported in the same period last year. In February, UCAP said it expected exports of Philippine coconut oil to fall 30 percent to an eight-year low of 750,000 tonnes this year after a series of strong typhoons wrecked farms late last year.
UCAP has said the 2007 export forecast took into account the projected drop in the production of copra - the dried coconut meat from which oil is extracted - and diversion of some supplies for the production of biodiesel.
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