Thursday, April 17, 2008 Coco sugar, anyone? By Ric M. Obsines Agri-Biz
THE PowerPoint presentation on "Coco Sugar - A Promising Product" impressed me tremendously. But the agri-businessman in me made me scrutinize the profitability analysis using enterprise budgeting portion of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Knowledge Emporium Google search engine.
The selling price per kilogram of the coco sugar is P80. With a total unit cost of P45.74 per kilogram, net income of the farmer is P34.26 kilogram of coco sugar sold. Estimated harvest is 3 liter per tree per day and estimated production is one kilogram of coco sugar for every six liters of toddy or sap.
Compare the above figures with the simple business of selling tuba and vinegar. Four liters or one gallon of tuba, after adding the tungog or coloring ingredient, is sold as bag-ong dawat (sweet tuba) at P50 per gallon. Estimated cost of production is about P5 per gallon, or a net income of P45 per gallon - no hassles of cooking and packaging. I'll go for the tuba any day - no marketing and packaging cost, and your market is local with very little overhead.
The bag-ong dawat, if not sold, becomes bahal, after one day of fermentation and if still not sold after a few days, becomes vinegar, which rarely happens. With the spiral in the cost of almost everything in this country, the cost of tuba remains steady - I hope.
For diabetics
Coco sugar is, however, great for diabetics, for weight management and maintenance of the obese and figure-watchers, and have been shown to lower cholesterol. With a glycemic index (GI) of 35, (a GI of 56 is considered low) coco sugar holds great potential for coco farmers and investors who can parlay the findings into a successful marketing campaign in the booming health and wellness industry. Which also costs a lot of money. Consider the competition and the complexities of having to wriggle your way into this billion-dollar market.
Don't get me wrong. Coco sugar is a great product and a promising one - for the export market. The basic price of P80 per kilogram, however, could not compete with the price of sugarcane brown sugar. Already, the basic price being posted by the PCA-Zamboanga Research Center in Zamboanga City is P180 per kilogram, which is also the posted price in the Internet. The export price in dollars could be more than this. Which makes us wonder where the poor coconut farmers will be in this new promising enterprise.
More promises
The tender unopened in florescence or spadix is the main source of the coco sap. Sweet, oyster-white, translucent liquid oozes from the spadix when cut the way a mananggete surgically slices a sap with his sanggot. Each tree can yield up to 3 lit/day, but emphasis ought to be made also of the fact that production goes down during the rainy season. Ask any mananggete and he will tell you why. Don't ask me because I am not one of them.
The sap is rich in sugars, amino acids (especially glutamic acid) and vitamins. Among the more common amino acids in the coco sap are: tryptophan, lysine, aspartic acid and glycine. Some of the impressive vitamin contents of the coco sap is thiamine at 77 per milligrams, riboflavin, pyridozine, inositol and traces of B12. No wonder those who imbibe of their daily tuba fare have bulging stomachs from overdrinking all those vitamins and amino acids. I just mentioned a few of the amino acids and vitamins you can get from the coco sugar - and the basic tuba for that matter. One question: aren't these vitamins and amino acids destroyed or damaged during the cooking process? Not in the tuba, I am sure, because there is no cooking involved here.
So why not patronize our own coco sugar- and our local tuba for a change?
