MATI, Davao Oriental-10/13/2001 (Philippine Daily) - The InternationalCopra Export Corp., which is one of the country's biggest coconut crudeoil exporters, said it is considering a mass layoff of its workers unlessthe price of copra, which has been falling in the last few years, does notimprove.Interco, which maintains three plants in Mindanao including one here, saidit is losing an average of P500 million a year since the crisis in thecoconut industry started."Definitely, we will be forced to cut significantly our workforce shouldthe downtrend continue in the next two years," Michael Ling, Intercopurchasing manager, said.Interco, he said, used to earn P1 billion per year.Ling said the crisis gripping the coconut industry is hardly addressedbecause "the government's intervention (to solve the crisis) is notenough."Interco is Davao Oriental's remaining big private employer after the DavaoTimber Corp. shut down its operations in the early 1980s. It currentlyemploys at least 150 people here.Another reason cited by Interco for the layoff is the unabated cutting ofcoconut trees, which resulted in a reduced supply of nuts."The government is helpless in stopping the massive cutting of coconuttrees. If this trend will continue in the next two years, we will reallybe forced to retrench our workers," Ling said.But coconut producers said they have no more choice left but to converttheir farms either into ricefields or mango plantations because of thevery low prices of copra.Even Mayor Francisco Rabat admitted he is diversifying his 400-hectarefarm while waiting for the coconut industry to recover."Diversify (the farm) so you can be helped. If the coconut will not helpyou, the other (crops) will. I am now very lucky with my pomelo," Rabatsaid.On the claims of Interco, Rabat said that "the oil mills are neveraffected (by the crisis) because they just buy copra, process it and sellit.""They always make money. It is the coconut producers who lose moneybecause right now the income of copra just goes to the laborers," he said.From a high of P20 per kilo until 1998, prices of copra plummeted to a lowof P4 per kilo. The reason cited for the sharp decrease was the worldmarket's shift to the use of palm oil."The world market prices of copra is very low because the other oilvegetable products are very substantial in production like the palm oil inMalaysia. They released an average of 8 million tons a year to the worldmarket and Indonesia, 5 million tons. How do you expect the coconutindustry to compete with that," Rabat said.Jonelito Vicente, officer in charge of the Philippine Coconut Authorityhere, said he expected the annual output of the coconut industry tofurther decrease in the coming years because the PCA is poised to stop itsfree fertilizers program because of lack of funds.He, however, denied there was massive cutting of coconut trees here.Vicente said there was even an increase in the area planted to coconut.Davao Oriental became the country's largest coconut producer when itsannual output reached 216,710 metric tons last year. But the PCA here saidthe figure is 40 percent lower than the same period in 1999. FerdinandZuasola, PDI Mindanao Bureau