LEGEND has it that the numerous coconut trees now standing in Calubian, Leyte, all came from just one nut found floating in a river by an early inhabitant.

The town now symbolizes the coconut industry in Eastern Visayas, the country’s third largest coconut producing region.  Its name is derived from “lubi” word for coconut.

Calubian’s people always pay homage to the “tree of life” during their fiesta in the middle of August.  It is also during the last week of that month when Coconut Week is celebrated in the country.

This year, a festive atmosphere pervaded the progressive coastal town, about 80 km from Tacloban City, in-the northern part of Leyte Island.

On the night of Aug. 14, the Ms Lubi-Lubi 2004 was crowned in a pageant.  Earlier that day, Leyte Rep. Edward Veloso and Mayor Hazel Po led other town officials in the inauguration of the P86-mMion Calubian port.

The next day, the town was alive with shouts and drumbeats from four contingents competing during the Lubi-lubi Festival.

But the highlight of the celebration was the golden anniversary of the parish of the Our Lady of Fatima, with the pontifical concelebrated Mass attended by four Bishops and about 50 priests. Señor San Roque has been the town’s patron saint ever since the place was known as Eulalia, a barrio of the nearby town of Leyte, Leyte.

Bright prospects

The people in Calubian and in other parts of the region have a lot to thank God for this year. The price of copra has remained high, and the prospects of coconut virgin oil and coco-diesel as commercial products are bright.

Copra price fell to as low as below P2 last year and many people in the region had thought it was not worth the effort to make copra. Late last year, however the price slowly rose and in January, a better year for the coconut farmers was already apparent.

Eastern Visayas has a total of 1.3 million coconut farm workers and 360,000 coconut farmer-landowners, according to Edilberto Nierva, general manager of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) for the region.

Nierva said that with the current high price of copra, the farmers and their families could cope better with the economic crunch besetting the country.  Farmgate price of copra is now P18 to P19.

Export gains

During the first six: months, export sales of coconut derived products (cochin, low color oil, copra cake, crude coconut oil and refined bleached coconut oil) from Eastern Visayas reached $16.64million. Seventy-four percent, or 27,869 metric tons, of the products went to Japan.

Last year the region sold 188,853 MT of coconut-derived products worth $36.996 million abroad. Japan bought $18.605 million worth; Malaysia, $6.008 million; China, $5.321 million; European countries, $3.844 million; Indonesia, $1.86.6 million; and the United States, $1.350-million.

Coconut trees have also provided raw materials for, handicraft makers, such as twigs used for decor, sheaths for hats or bags, and leaf midribs for decor items and brooms.

Other tree parts can be used for commercial purposes, such as coconut water for vinegar or coconut gel, trunk for housing material, leaves for food wrappers, sap for wine, and coconut shells for charcoal.

Nierva disclosed tha the PCA was now promoting the production of coconut virgin oil and coco-diesel.

Already, Mayor Gerardo Espina Sr. of Naval Biliran, has informed the PCA regional office of his town's plan to venture into coconut virgin oil production.