Desiccated coconuts: China increases imports significantly
Mundus-Agri: Major Asian growing regions, such as the Philippines, but also Malaysia, and Indonesia, have been hit by heavy rainfall this season, causing some difficulties. In China, however, coconut products are becoming increasingly popular.
Palm oil becomes more expensive.
Many Asian growing regions have been hit by above-average rainfall this year; the Philippines, for example, is just recovering from tropical storm Nalgae, which caused major damage with flooding over the weekend. The storm is now moving on towards China and the heavy rainfall is expected to hit the coastal province of Guangdong and parts of Taiwan in particular. Experts believe these weather-related disruptions will also affect Malaysia's and Indonesia's harvest, further delaying deliveries and likely increasing coconut oil prices. Palm oil prices had already risen markedly in recent weeks, including by a further 4%, when Russia withdrew from the UN agreement on safe grain exports from Ukraine. According to experts, these factors are likely to keep palm oil prices at least stable in the coming months, dragging other edible oils up with them. Prices for desiccated coconuts, however, have fallen slightly on the European spot market.
Demand from China on the rise
An interesting development can be seen in the Chinese coconut market. As China Daily reports, coconuts from Southeast Asian countries in particular have rapidly gained popularity here, and online trade is also booming. These are both fresh coconuts and products such as desiccated coconuts, coconut milk, etc. According to statistics from the China Customs Service, China imported a total of 566,000 mt of coconuts in January-July 2022, which is an increase of more than 35% compared to the same period last year (January-July 2021: 418,000 mt). A large proportion of these imports came from Thailand (48.6%), Indonesia (32.5%) and Vietnam (18.4%). The experts at China Daily expect that the increasing variety of coconut products and the rising popularity of fresh coconuts will ensure that demand in China will continue to rise, so that imports from Southeast Asia in particular will continue to increase.