Market Review Dessicated Coconut
June 2021
Price of desiccated coconut remained strong until the first quarter of 2021. In May 2021 price of DC from Philippines (FOB US) was 17% higher as opposed to last year’s price. The positive trend of the price started from the last quarter of 2019 when the price increased from USD1,628/MT in September to US$1,830/MT in December 2019 in the Philippines. Similarly, price of DC from Indonesia showed a positive trend since Augusts 2019. In May 2021, the price has reached US$2,425/MT which was 35% higher compared to last year’s price. In Sri Lanka, price of DC started to appreciate from August 2019 and kept increasing to reach US$2,877/MT in May 2021, an increase of 19.5% as opposed to May 2020 price. The price is expected to remain strong driven by expected lower production worsened by delays in shipments.
Global trade of desiccated coconut (DC) in the first quarter of 2021 is still suffering from delays in shipments after experiencing a drop in 2020 attributed to low production worsened by Covid-19 pandemic. European countries (EU28) recorded a drop in import of DC during January-April 2021. Demand of DC from European countries during the period was only 32,903 MT of DC which was lower by 12.8% to the volume a year earlier. Meanwhile import of the coconut product from US market, a major destination of DC, showed a positive signal of recovery. In the period of January-May 2021, 18,157 tons of DC was sent to US market which was an increase by 24.5% as opposed to the same period in 2020. In terms of value, the increase was even higher reflecting a higher price of DC in 2021. During January-May 2021, global import of desiccated coconut slightly increased by less than 2%, but expected to remained low as supply is deteriorating by delays in shipments and increasing Covid-19 cases in major countries such as Indonesia and Philippines.
On the other side, supply of DC is still suffering from delays in shipments especially in the Philippines. Export supply of DC from Philippines, the largest exporting country, eased to level of 46,760 MT during January-April 2021. The export volume went down by 2% compared to the same period in 2020. It should be noted that Philippines experienced a lower export of DC in 2020. The country shipped 145,200 MT of DC to global market, a drop of 10.6% compared to 2019’s volume. Meanwhile, Indonesia and Sri Lanka benefiting from a lower supply of DC from Philippines. The two countries shipped higher volume of DC to global market in the first quarter of 2021. Indonesia sent 46,570 MT of DC, an increase of 20% as opposed to last year’s volume. Indonesia kept its positive trend from previous year. In 2020, DC export from Indonesia grew by 17%. Another major exporting country, Sri Lanka, also experienced a positive growth in the first quarter of 2021. During January-April 2020, export of DC from Sri Lanka was 9,171 MT which rose more than 6% compared to the volume in 2020 for the same period. It is worth noting that Sri Lanka was suffering from the import duties imposed by the Government of India, major importing countries of Sri Lankan DC in 2020. During the year, Export of DC from Sri Lanka dropped by more than 40%.
Export destination of DC from Philippines were USA and Europe accounting for more than 40% of the total export. USA was the main destination for Philippines DC. During January-April 2021, 12,244 MT of DC was shipped to USA or 26% of the total export of DC from Philippines. Meanwhile in Europe, Netherlands was the main hub receiving 6,152 MT of Philippines DC. In Asia, China was the largest importing country of DC from the Philippines.
Meanwhile, export DC from Indonesia mainly sent through Singapore. More than 21% of the total export volume during January-April 2021 was shipped to Singapore. Other major destinations include Russia, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, and Turkey.
