The Department of Agriculture (DA) announced it will plant up to 50 million coconut trees in 2026 alone as part of a five-year program to plant 100 million by 2028.
The DA actually doubled its original target of 25 million trees for 2026 in pursuit of its aggressive goal, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., who also chairs the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), said in a statement on Thursday.
So far, more than 8.5 million trees were planted in 2024, with at least 15 million more targeted for planting before the end of 2025.
“The president has allocated additional funds for this, and we will involve coconut farming communities to fast-track the production of planting materials,” Tiu Laurel added.
The PCA’s revised strategy has significantly front-loaded the replanting effort while aiming to boost the productivity of the country’s 340 million existing coconut trees through an intensified fertilization program, the DA said.
Many of the existing coconut trees in the country have been deemed aging or senile, yielding only 40 nuts annually, just a third of their optimal output, the DA said.
The coconut fertilization program has been allocated P1.8 billion for 2026, the DA said.
“The goal is to raise yields to at least 60 coconuts per tree annually through fertilization with agricultural grade salt (AGSF) while we wait for the new coconut trees to mature,” Tiu Laurel explained.
The DA said that part of the budget for 2026 will be used to procure AGSF from local producers to help revitalize the Philippine salt industry.
Meanwhile, the PCA said it will distribute corn and coffee planting materials to coconut farmers for intercropping to help diversify and increase their incomes.
The massive replanting drive has been launched amid rising global demand for coconut oil, driven in part by the European Union’s (EU) decision to classify palm oil as environmentally unsustainable due to high indirect land-use change, the DA explained.
The EU plans to phase out palm oil imports by 2030, unless land-use classification systems in exporting countries are revised. This has opened new opportunities for coconut-producing countries like the Philippines.
The DA said global coconut oil prices have also been rising due to lower copra output and surging demand for fresh coconuts as a healthful juice option.
Moreover, the Philippines has been working to reclaim its position as the world’s top coconut producer from Indonesia, the DA said. While the country remains as the number one exporter of coconut globally, Indonesia produced 17.13 million metric tons (MT) of coconuts in 2024, 14.8 percent higher than the Philippines’ 14.77 million MT last year.
The DA explained that much of the Philippines’ decline stemmed from the devastation left by Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, which wiped out an estimated 10 million coconut trees.
The DA’s replanting and intensified fertilization programs are actually investments in the future of the coconut industry since a coconut tree starts bearing fruit six to 10 years after being planted. Some dwarf varieties are known to produce fruits in three to four years, but a regular coconut tree fully matures and attains peak production only 15 to 20 years after being planted. Maturity periods can also be affected by varieties, as well as climate and soil conditions.
