President Marcos has ordered the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to come up with a general plan to develop and rehabilitate the coconut industry as it carries out a massive coconut planting and replanting program.

Marcos said this during his meeting with PCA officials in Malacañan on Wednesday, Oct. 4, to discuss the agency's proposed Coconut Planting and Replanting Project, which would reinvigorate the coconut industry by planting 100 million trees by 2028.

In his remarks, the President stressed the importance of crafting a plan before carrying out the ambitious proposal.

"There's a big opportunity, so let's have a look at that so that we can put— we can show even just for ourselves. Kailangan natin mayroon tayong plano (We need to have a plan),” he said.

“Hindi puwedeng basta’t ito gagawa. Kailangan maliwanag yung plano. Tiyakin natin na talagang ginamit natin sa tama (We can't just have a go at it. We need to have a clear plan. We need to ensure that we would use it properly),” he added.

Marcos underscored the importance of inputs from coconut industry leaders in developing a general plan for the sector and wanted the government to implement it beyond his term.

"Why will we stop at 2028 because I'm finished? Huwag nating isipin yun (Let's set that aside). How many years do we need to take to rehabilitate the coconut industry?" he asked.

The PCA recommends issuing a Memorandum Circular (MC) that will direct concerned national government agencies and instrumentalities and urge local government units (LGUs) to undertake efforts to support the project.

Under the proposed planting and replanting program, the PCA targets to plant 20 to 25 million trees annually from 2023 to 2028. However, it said a whole-of-nation approach is needed to achieve this.

Under a Memorandum of Agreement between the PCA and coconut-producing provinces and municipalities, the LGUs will be encouraged to implement coconut planting and replanting, seed farm development, and coconut fertilization, among other activities.

The PCA has launched a massive coconut planting program to address the impact of senilities and typhoon destruction on the sector, noting that the last time the Philippines implemented a massive coconut planting program was around 50 years ago.

The agency lamented that it only managed to plant or replant about 1 to 3 million coconut trees due to budgetary constraints. This is below the target of 34 million trees.

According to the Malacañang, the Philippines has a total area of 3.60 million hectares planted with coconut trees. It has 340.60 million coconut-bearing trees capable of producing 14 to 15 billion nuts annually.

From 15.86 million metric tons (MMT) of coconut in 2012, coconut production in the country fell to 13.83 MMT in 2016 before rising to 14.73 MMT in 2018 and 14.93 MMT in 2022.

Despite these, the country remains the biggest exporter of coconut products, recording a total export value of $3.22 billion in 2022. Coconut exports contributed an average of 35 percent to the country's total agricultural export earnings from 2013 to 2022.

The PCA said the sector's challenges are increasing tree senility, bearing tree losses due to pests and diseases, natural disasters, and climate change impact.

Last year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) recorded 340.6 million bearing trees, a 6.2 million decline from the 346.8 million bearing trees a year before.