The country can reposition itself as the largest global supplier of virgin coconut oil (VCO) as international cosmetics industry clamor for more supply, an official of the Philippine Coconut Authority said on Wednesday.

In a study titled "State of the Art VCO production in the Philippines" PCA Deputy Administrator Carlos Carpio said market positioning of the VCO has to be assured through quality and price competitiveness to maintain the country's present status as the leading exporter of VCO in the world.

The utmost priority for the industry is to increasingly fund research and development on processing technologies and for conducting more extensive medical studies to support the claims on various health benefits of VCO, he said.

The Philippines is still the number 1 supplier of VCO in the global market. Other VCO producing countries are Thailand and Malaysia, and they are fast moving in product development to be able to compete with our VCO, he added.

The VCO was first recognized as food supplement due to its health benefit claims. Lately, a VCO boom have been noted due to increasing sales of high-end products, such as soaps, lotions, massage oils, beauty creams and lipsticks, that contain the natural oil.

Expanding our export markets is also an effective strategy to develop the VCO industry that will revitalize the dwindling coconut industry, Carpio added.

The growing demand for VCO has been noted in the past five years, and it wasnt until 2006 when it was recognized as potential export product.

To date, the Philippines produces 2,931 metric tons of VCO, generating US$1.5 million revenues from the US alone, the 2005 PCA records said.

Aside from US, other countries clamoring for VCOs are Australia, and Canada.

The increasing VCO craze in the international market has reinvigorated the coconut industry and started to gain economic advantage as many farmers ventured into virgin coconut oil production, mostly on a smaller scale.

He said that as such, more jobs were generated, and nut requirements of the VCO plants improved the farm income of the coconut farmers.