At 64 years old, Rodrigo Barrameda’s working life is surely in its twilight. But then so too is his profession. Like many families in the sleepy village of Gubat Ilawod, Bacacay, in the southern Luzon province of Albay, Rodrigo earns his keep by making copra, the kernel from which coconut oil is extracted for use in food, detergents and biofuels.

1. Karl Kaufman, Manila
Philippines
May 22, 2012
A farmer sits on sacks of copra while waiting
for transport to Sibutad town in Mindanao
(Photo by Joe Torres)
At 64 years old, Rodrigo Barrameda’s working
life is surely in its twilight. But then so too is
his profession.
Like many families in the sleepy village of
Gubat Ilawod, Bacacay, in the southern Luzon
province of Albay, Rodrigo earns his keep by
making copra, the kernel from which coconut
oil is extracted for use in food, detergents
and biofuels.
It has never been particularly profitable work,
but for a rising number of the 3.5 million

2. Filipino families involved in copra production,
the industry is fast becoming unsustainable.
With main export markets the US and Europe
faced with escalating economic problems,
shipments plummeted 41.5 percent in the first
three months of this year to 209,256 tonnes,
down from 357,622 tonnes during the same
period in 2011, according to figures by the
United Coconut Association of the Philippines
(UCAP).
“Coconut farming used to be a good
livelihood,” Rodrigo says in his strong local
dialect as he chews on betel nut while his
sons, Pablo, 26, and Rolly, 33, sit squinting
nearby in the sweltering May afternoon sun.
“Now it’s dying.”
The result has been a copra price crash. In
January average copra farm-gate prices were
US$0.61 per kilogram, dropping to $0.60 in
February and then down to $0.57 by March, a
slide of close to seven percent in the first
three months of this year alone, according to
Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) data for
Eastern Visayas.
For Rodrigo and his sons, the crash points to a
dire scenario. Already Pablo is considering

3. abandoning the family’s land and trying his
luck as a trishaw driver, while Rolly, himself a
father of three, is mulling employment in
Manila, if not overseas.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Rodrigo sighs.
With prices dropping, in turn affecting the
livelihoods of millions of Filipinos, a growing
chorus of people is calling for the government
to help coconut farmers to grow new crops
and build viable cooperatives.
“Diversification is key to the economic
survival of small growers facing severe
hardship,” says former senator Juan Miguel
Zubiri, an agriculturist.
He is urging the PCA, the state agency
overseeing the industry, to help planters
expand their sources of income via inter-
cropping, the practice of growing two or more
crops side by side.
“Short-season and high-value crops in
between coconut trees will surely help,” says
Zubiri, adding that corn, peanuts, bananas,
cacao, coffee and pineapples can all be
cultivated on coconut farms.

4. He says the PCA should also encourage
farmers to set up cooperatives to help them
sell copra wholesale at what would be higher
prices.
“Cooperatives can eliminate traders who take
advantage of cash-strapped farmers,” says
Zubiri.
Despite increasing signs the coconut industry
in the Philippines is facing decline and
uncertainty, Yvonne Agustin, executive
director of UCAP, remains hopeful.
Demand for coconut oil in traditional export
markets – particularly for industry – is tipped
to rise at the end of the year, she says, while
the supply of copra has started to stabilize.
Whether this will be enough to avert
economic ruin for families like the
Barramedas remains to be seen.