California firm keen on coconut water from PHL

Another American firm has taken serious interest in sourcing coconut water and dessicated coconut from the Philippines following the coco water investment of PepsiCo and Vita Coco revealed last September during the visit of President Beningno Aquino III to the US. Nutiva, a California-based distributor of organically farmed nutritional products, said it plans to ship out—for eventual export to two continents—10 container vans of coconut water, for processing into a health drink. “We’ve been in constant communication with our Philippine partners to give us a staple supply of coconut water that we can market in strategic cities in US, North America and several countries in Europe where we have presence," Nutiva president and CEO John Roulac said on Wednesday. Nutiva supply chain director Steven Naccarato said they are open to setting aside some of their earnings to assist Filipino coconut farmer to improve their efficiency and production output. Nutiva said it has been getting its supply of 200,000 pounds of organic virgin coconut oil from two Filipino firms, one of which is Peter Paul Philippines Corp. (PPPC). PPPC said it runs “the largest single production facility of desiccated coconut in the world, with a rated capacity of 22,000 metric tons per year. — ELR, GMA News