Market and Production Update for 25 June 2020.

There have been no significant updates to the current situation in the Philippines.

Producers are still facing the same challenges,

–    A backlog of orders stemming from the closure of production facilities over the past three months.

–    Staffing levels are still much lower than optimal, due to people’s concerns about COVID-19 in the Philippine’s.

–    Reduced production volumes caused by the lower staffing levels and enhanced distancing measures that have been put in place.

Primex has introduced additional shifts into their factories to speed up production and is moving raw materials around the country much more, to ensure there are no breaks in production.

We are working with Primex to get the most up to date information to everyone with a tri-weekly client status update email for all orders (watch this space).

The markets are static in terms of pricing; however, as we have mentioned, production slots filling up for the end of the year and producers are unwilling to take on more positions until they have cleared the backlogs.

We are seeing other Asian markets jump in to try to fill the gaps with cheaper coconut offerings, that sound too good to be true. However, like anything else in the world, there is a big catch, quality, these production facilities are way below the QA standards buyers require.

Demand forecasting is basically out of the window. Manufacturers supplying the hospitality market have seen demand fall 50% or more and they are predicting levels will not return to normal for another 9 to 12 months.

Other manufacturers volumes are up due to increasing demand from the supermarkets, which will continue to see much higher demand, as people stay home and buying habits change.