Commodity associations, in our case coconut associations, perform important roles in many areas including advocacy initiatives, trade negotiations, products and services promotion, trade and market information generation and dissemination, private sector- government dialogues, among others. Oftentimes, government agencies prefer to deal with associations rather than with individuals. This paper mainly dwells on the experiences of UCAP (United Coconut Associations of the Philippines) especially in performing above roles.  As an umbrella association comprising of the various coconut industry sectors, UCAP has served as venue for discussion regarding various industry concerns.  Moreover, entities almost always put weight on UCAP positions and opinions.