Philippine exports of coconut oil in January fell 49 percent from a year earlier on weak demand from main buyers Europe and the United States, industry data showed on Wednesday.
The Southeast Asian country shipped a total of 52,631 tonnes of coconut oil last month, compared with total exports of 103,074 tonnes in January last year, the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines (UCAP) said in a report.
The European market bought 30,634 tonnes or 58 percent of total shipments, while the United States cornered 18,677 tonnes or about 36 percent.
Japan took the balance of 3,320 tonnes.
Based on UCAP estimates, coconut oil exports last month were valued at $68 million, less than half of year-ago earnings of $159.3 million as a result of sharply reduced volume and cheaper prices.
The Philippines is the world's biggest supplier of coconut oil, which is used in food, detergents and biofuels and is one of the country's top foreign exchange earners.
UCAP forecast coconut oil exports this year to rise 12.3 percent to 925,000 tonnes, recovering from last year's nearly 39 percent slump caused by tight supply of copra from which the commodity is extracted.
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