Emphasizing that there is a great potential in the country's coconut products, President Marcos has vowed to provide significant intervention to the coconut industry with a goal of becoming the world's top coconut-producing country.

In his speech during the launch of the Integrated Coconut Processing Facility in Misamis Oriental on Tuesday, April 22, Marcos promised to give coconut farmers the same assistance given to rice farmers.

"Gagawin din natin para sa coconut na tutulungan natin lahat ng ating mga farmer para yung value added… Kasi paglabas dito sa plantang ito final product na. Packaging na lang nang kaunti (We will also do that for the coconut farmers so that the value added...because once it goes out of the plant it's already the final product. They only have to deal with the packaging)," Marcos said.

"Tutulungan kayo namin sa marketing, sa promotion. Paabutin natin yung ginagawa ngayon ng DTI na digitalize lahat para kahit na yung nandito sa MisOr puwedeng makiusap sa merkado sa labas ng Pilipinas at export na ‘yan. Malaking potensyal masyado (We will help you in marketing, in promotion. We will bring the DTI's digitalization so that those who are here in Misamis Oriental can reach the market outside the Philippines and let's export that. There is great potential here)," Marcos added.

To achieve this, Marcos said more processing centers should be built for the coconut sector.

"Hindi ko akalain at noong nasabi sa akin ay nagulat ako isa pa lang ito sa buong Pilipinas (I did not expect this at I was surprised that this is the first in the Philippines). This is the first one in the Philippines. We are one of the largest coconut-producing nations in the world," Marcos said.

The President lamented that the government has not been helping coconut farmers in the country.

Despite this, he said, the Philippines was still able to rank as the second in terms of coconut products.

"Nagugulat ako sa galing ng ating mga magsasaka, wala tayong ginagawa sa pamahalaan. Wala tayong ginawa mula noong – matagal na siguro may 50 taon na – wala tayong ginagawa para tulungan ang mga coconut farmer. Ngayon lang natin tinutulungan (I was shocked that the despite how skilled our farmers are, we are not doing anything from the government. We are not doing anything, it's been 50 years, we did nothing to help our coconut farmers. We are only helping them now)," Marcos said.

Situated on the property of First Community Cooperative (FICCO), a multipurpose cooperative with over 100 branches, the P350-million Integrated Coconut Processing Facility (ICPF) aims to produce high-value coconut products, seeking to increase the farm gate price from P8-9 per nut to at least P16-18 per nut.

The facility can process up to 60,000 coconut per day.

Under the Solving Unemployment through Rural Industrialization, Sustainable and Enterprise (SUnRISE) project, the ICPF promotes the processing of coconut products beyond traditional copra.  These include cocopallets/cocoboards, activated carbon, virgin coconut oil/cooking oil, coco flour, skim milk and coco water.

Marcos also led the inauguration of the Rice Processing System II project, which includes a multi-stage rice mill and four recirculating dryers.