Last of three partsAS to the present situation, except for the chairman of the board and the president/CEO, all the other members of the CIIF-OMG board are the same as during the Duterte administration.Encouraged by a misinterpretation of a law that seems biased for coco levy cash and against coco levy assets, the evidence abounds that this group, as noted by many, seems hell-bent on running CIIF-OMG to the ground in effective mismanagement so that privatization becomes 'justifiable,' occasioned by the near-bankruptcy of the coco levy assets, not to mention that it will be easier and cheaper for favored or conspiratorial groups to take over.An 'infirmity' of the present law may be found in Section 8 of RA 11524, which stipulates that 'all government agencies holding coco levy funds and/or assets shall transfer any and all monies to the trust fund within a period not exceeding five (5) years from the effectivity of this Act,' at which time — one might pause to think — there may be very little or nothing to transfer. Or, because of good stewardship, there may be more than what there is now, and, therefore, in that case, there may be no more need to get rid of these assets but continue to develop them in service of the farmers and the industry.It all depends on what the current administration has in mind or seriously intends to do: either follow and even further enhance a rational strategy as in the early years of state intervention in coconut or merely practice benign neglect.There's no question as to CIIF-OMG's multiple challenges.For one, there is an aging infrastructure that urgently requires modernization since it impacts its efficiency and productivity.Coconut oil prices undergo volatility due to global supply and demand fluctuations. It has long been accepted that the most important factor for price stability is greater domestic utilization of our coconut products — both food and non-food. For instance, the government has yet to implement the law (RA 9367) obliging the mixture of diesel with coconut methyl ester, which other countries are doing for ecological and economic reasons.Transforming some of CIIF-OMG's non-operating plants into a complete value-chain of unhusked matured coconut processing will be its competitive advantage, considering the variety of food and non-food products directly available for Filipino consumption, including by OFWs.There are more than a hundred million Filipinos today. When a good number of them are helped to realize that the secret to good health is as near as the nearest coconut products, greater domestic utilization of coconut will be achieved and make us key participants in price setting. We would no longer be mere price takers.Also, mobilizing OFWs abroad both as consumers and direct sellers of a variety of retailed coconut products, both in food and non-food, will be an added advantage not only to CIIF-OMG but, more importantly, to the whole industry.The CIIF-OMG's orientation must be coconut-farmer-friendly rather than merely concentrated or dependent on big industry players. The secret is for the government to help (not take over) farmers' organizations and mobilization, making their confederation an institutional partner and an important pillar in policy and management functions hand in hand with professionals to attain more profitability and stability. That's the real secret of success: the government's faith in the Filipino farmer.For instance, the farmers' confederation of organizations can enter as a toller for the CIIF, not as a mere supplier of raw material. There should be an immediate honest-to-goodness review of the available oil milling plants, such as Granexport, to address operational capabilities and opportunity losses and optimize plant efficiency.CIIF top management can enter into a supply agreement for big, reputable buyers like Procter and Gamble, Unilever, Louise Dreyfuss, BASF, Golden Agri, Cargill, and AAK, to name a few.Bring back to CIIF the distribution of its Minola brand, which the board awarded 'monopolistically' to one company with bigger discounts than the previous 20-plus distributors.Minola is the coconut oil brand of the coconut farmers, and it has strong brand loyalty. As a result of the monopolistic distribution imposed by the board, it is now suffering terribly.For the coconut farmers, the average revenue is only a mere P250-350 per tree per year, and with an average of 100 to 150 trees as tenant farmers, that makes an income of only P25,000 to 52,500 a year.With strategies of collaboration with CIIF, some have calculated that revenue per tree could go up to as high as P7,000 per tree per year or even higher.Charles Avila is chairman of the national sectoral committee on coconut, Philippine Council of Agriculture and Fisheries. He is also the spokesman for the Confederation of Coconut Farmers' Organizations of the Philippines and a former administrator of the Philippine Coconut Authority.
