The Philippines is doubling its coconut planting target for next year to 50 million trees, as the government seeks to reclaim the country’s former title as the world’s top coconut producer.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, who heads the policymaking board of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), stated that the agency is now targeting 50 million coconut seedlings for 2026, up from the original target of 25.4 million.

“On the orders of President Marcos, we are doubling our efforts. Our new goal for 2026 is to plant 50 million new coconut trees,” said Laurel in a statement.

“The president has allocated additional funds for this, and we will involve coconut farming communities to fast-track the production of planting materials,” he added.

PCA initially planned to plant 100 million coconut trees by 2028 under a five-year program.

Last year, the coconut agency aimed to plant 8.5 million seedlings but surpassed the goal by 300,000.

This year, the target is to plant 15.3 million seedlings.

The Philippines is scaling up its planting efforts to reclaim the top spot in the global coconut production, which it lost to Indonesia nearly 30 years ago. Currently, the country remains as the top coconut exporter.

Indonesia produced 17.13 million metric tons (MT) of coconuts last year versus the 14.77 million MT of the Philippines.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said the country’s decline in coconut production stemmed from the onslaught of Super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, which wiped out an estimated 10 million trees.

With a budget of ₱1.8 billion next year, the reinforced planting program will also strive to boost the productivity of the existing 340 million coconut trees, the majority of which are senile.

“The goal is to raise yields to at least 60 coconuts per tree annually through fertilization with agricultural grade salt while we wait for the new coconut trees to mature,” said Laurel.

He explained that the government’s planting push coincides with the rising global demand for coconut oil, which was influenced by the European Union’s (EU) move to classify palm oil as environmentally unsustainable due to high indirect land-use change.

Unless its land-use classification is revised, the EU is set to phase out palm oil imports by 2030.

This is expected to open new trading opportunities for coconut-producing countries such as the Philippines.

Likewise, global coconut oil prices are also rising due to lower copra output and surging demand for fresh coconuts as a healthy option.

To help farmers raise their income, part of the budget for the planting program will be used to distribute corn and coffee planting materials to coconut farmers for intercropping to help diversify their produce.