The Philippine coconut exports from January to September 2013 were recorded at over 1.2 billion USD, up 3.18 percent from the same period last year.

This is the fourth successive year the export value of such product passed 1 billion USD, according to the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Administrator Euclides Forbes.

The 2010, 2011 and 2012 figures were 1.63 billion USD, 1.5 billion USD and 1.53 billion USD, respectively.

The country shipped nearly 1.62 million tonnes of coconut and its products in the first three quarters of this year, up 47 percent year-on-year.

Forbes said this year’s target of planting 17.5 million coconut seedlings throughout the country is 98 percent completed.-VNA