The Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) recently turned over P27.5 million worth of facilities and equipment to enhance the virgin coconut oil (VCO) and by-product processing and marketing enterprise of the COCOLIFE Multi-Purpose Cooperative (CMPC) in the municipality of Pantukan, province of Davao de Oro.

The enterprise support was composed of two hauling trucks and one unit warehouse with a wastewater treatment facility to realize the cooperative’s objective of producing 185,205 liters of VCO and 498,000 bottles of coconut water per year. They also received three units chest-type freezers, 10 units upright chillers and 18 units icebox coolers for safe storage of bottled coconut water and one unit sterilizer to sanitize empty bottles.

With the facilities and equipment granted to CMPC, they are now capable process around 10,000 nuts per day hauled from the 484 hectares of coconut farm within Pantukan and the neighboring municipalities.

The two hauling trucks from DA-PRDP will provide support to the Cooperative in transporting their products.

“There is a growing demand for VCO in the international market,” according to CMPC chairman Rudy Ang.

Ang also said they have recently received a purchase order from a buyer in China requiring at least two container vans of desiccated coconut. The co-op is also considering the Oriental Golden Coco, Inc., a domestic buyer, that requires a minimum of two containers of coconut milk per month.

The interventions from PRDP through the Investment for Rural Enterprise for Agri-fishery Productivity (I-REAP) component directly benefits 89 coconut farmers aims to increase the income of the 89 coconut farmers directly benefits of the project who are also coconut farmers.

Aside from VCO, the COCOLIFE MPC is also selling bottled coconut water and coconut vinegar. (Janelle Flores, RPCO 11)