Sunday, September 16, 2007 Tuna, high-value crops are top agri exports
TUNA, abaca, and high-value crops such as coconuts and pineapples emerged as the country's top agricultural merchandise exports, which grew by P14.8 million or 1.23 percent for the first seven months of 2007, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said Saturday.
DA Undersecretary Berna Romulo-Puyat said that for coconut products, the top performer in terms of growth were desiccated coconuts, which grew by 15.2 percent, and copra meal/cake, by 44.5 percent.
In her report to DA Secretary Arthur Yap, Puyat also noted that for pineapple products, canned pineapple grew by 29.86 percent; pineapple juice, by 75.8 percent; and pineapple concentrates, by 16.14 percent.
For fisheries exports, the top gainer was tuna, which grew by 42 percent. Seaweeds and carageenan, on the other hand, increased by 68.2 percent, she noted.
The export of abaca fibers increased by 18.36 percent, while non-manufactured tobacco exports increased by 36 percent, she added.
"The export growth figure should be even higher if we include export products that are under the DA but not included by NSO as agro based products, such as meat exports, which include pork, poultry and beef and dairy products," Puyat said. "In fact for the first half of the year, meat exports rose by as much as 221.33 percent and dairy products increased by 35.94 percent."
