Copra or Coconut Oil: Global Commercial Aspects – Part 2

Globally, India ranks third in coconut and coconut oil production. Philippines and Indonesia take the first two positions. The previous part of copra or coconut oil global commercial aspects covered the global supply and trade of copra, coconut oil and their prices. This Part 2 presents export data of major coconut products from Philippines and Indonesia as well as ASEAN countries together. Also, the details about the international trade in coconut products for USA are also presented. Although somewhat older, i.e., for the year 2015, the data on area under coconut cultivation, coconuts production and productivity in major coconut producing countries, are presented, which may be useful for comparison.

The following table lists area, production and productivity coconut in major coconut growing countries of the world reported for the year 2015.

TABLE 1: COCONUT AREA, PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTIVITY IN MAJOR COCONUT PRODUCING COUNTRIES (2015)

[Source – Coconut Development Board / Asian and Pacific Coconut Community (APCC) Statistical Year Book 2015]

Exports of coconut products from Philippines during 2018, 2019 and 2020 (quantity and value) are presented in the following table, along with their HS codes.

TABLE 2: EXPORTS OF MAJOR COCONUT PRODUCTS FROM PHILIPPINES (2018-2020)

[Source – UN Comtrade Database]

The following table presents exports of various coconut products from Indonesia (quantity and value) during the years 2018, 2019 and 2020.

TABLE 3: EXPORTS OF MAJOR COCONUT PRODUCTS FROM INDONESIA (2018-2020)

[Source – UN Comtrade Database]

As can be seen from comparison of the above data in the two tables, copra (HS Code 080112) is being exported by Indonesia but not by Philippines in significant quantities. Similarly, Indonesia exports somewhat significant quantities of woven carpets (HS Code 570220) than those exported from Philippines.

In the year 2020, Philippines exported higher quantities of desiccated coconuts (HS Code 08011) than those exported by Indonesia. However, Indonesia exported significantly larger quantities of copra (HS Code 080112) and coconuts other than desiccated (HS Code 080119) as compared to Philippines.

In the case of crude coconut oil and its fractions (HS Code 151311), Indonesia exported 266992 MT (almost 270000 MT), much larger (almost three times!) quantities across the world than the quantities exported by Philippines, 99027 MT (slightly lower than 100000 MT). Also, Indonesia exported more quantities (311056 MT) of coconut oil and its fractions other than crude (HS Code 151319), while Philippines exported just 128879 MT of these products.

However, the exports of copra cake (meal) (HS Code 230650) from Philippines higher (200846 MT) are than those from Indonesia at 182836 MT.

Comparison of exports of same products from a country during consecutive years 2019 and 2020 may not be proper due to the global corona virus pandemic. There are significant variations in the export data of most of the coconut products from 2019 to 2020 due to several different factors.

As both these countries, Philippines and Indonesia, are the top producers of coconuts, their processing industry is well-developed and is still growing in these countries. Extraction of coconut or copra oil and its fractionation into value-added products are carried out on a very large scale in these countries.

Since coconut is more prevalent in the coastal regions of Asian countries, it would be interesting to analyze the historical coconut oil trade data from ASEAN countries, which include Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The following table presents exports and imports of coconut oil and cake of coconuts from and into ASEAN countries during the period 2009 to 2018, in value terms (US $).

TABLE 4: COCONUT OIL AND CAKE OF COCONUTS EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF ASEAN COUNTRIES (2009 TO 2018)

[Source – ASEAN Statistical Yearbook 2019]

The following table presents ASEAN exports of coconut oil to the top three markets along with their market shares for the period 2015 to 2018.

TABLE 5: ASEAN EXPORTS OF COCONUT OIL TO TOP THREE COUNTRIES AND MARKET SHARES (2015 TO 2018)

[Source – ASEAN Statistical Yearbook 2019]

Since USA is one of the major markets for coconut oil and other coconut products, the imports of major coconut products into USA for the recent three years, 2018, 2019 and 2020 are presented in the following table.

TABLE 6: IMPORTS OF MAJOR COCONUT PRODUCTS IN USA (2018-2020)

[Source – USITC Dataweb]

A study of the import quantities in the year 2020 reveals that USA imports very large quantities of desiccated and non-desiccated coconuts, crude as well as refined coconut (copra) oil and their fractions, but relatively small quantities of copra and coconut oilcake (meal). These data clearly indicates that coconut processing industry is not very significant in the USA, but consumes large quantities of coconut oil and its fractions for various applications, including further processing to convert them into high-value products.