Why are Virgin coconut oil products expensive here in the Philippines?

Question

We have plenty of coconuts here in the country and you can buy a piece of coconut for as low as P4, then why is virin coconut oil products expensive(for me)

Answer 1

because they are virgins!!!!!

Answer 2

Here's how to make your own Virgin Coconut Oil at home and i think you better refer to this: Materials needed: 1 fresh coconut blender cheesecloth/coffe filter wide glass jar Procedure: Extract coconut milk from fresh coconut. a. To produce its milk, remove the meat from the shell. b. Cut the coconut into strips or chunks. Place them in the blender. c. Add a small amount of hot water. d. Blend it for a few minutes. e. Place the cheesecloth over the mouth of the glass jar. f. Pour a little of the mixture over it. g. Squeeze the cheesecloth to obtain the milk and separate the pulp. h. Repeat the process with the remaining mixture. Tips: -Put just enough water. Too much liquid will overly dilute the milk. -You may opt to refrigerate the coconut strips before blending. Freezing them and then thawing will soften the coconut meat. This will enable you to extract more juice. Freezing does not alter the taste or nutrient content. Now that you have your milk let it rest in an uncovered glass jar for 1- 2 days. As effect of the fermentation process, the water and oil will separate. A layer of curd will form on top and the water settles down. The oil is to be found in the top two layers. Refrigerate the jar to let the oil and the curd harden. Remove the oil/curd from the jar after it has solidified. Throw away the liquid/water. Heat the oil and curd in a saucepan 140 to 180 °F (50-60 °C) for about 12 hours. Let it cool. You can now see oil and coconut solids in the pan. Separate the solids from the oil. Put cheesecloth over the mouth of the glass jar. Pour the oil mixture into the cheesecloth. Let the oil drain for a couple of hours. Squeeze the cheesecloth and discard remaining curd. Depending on the size of the coconut, this process will produce 3-4 tablespoons of virgin coconut oil. Tips: -Fermentation occurs best at temperatures of 85-105 degrees F. Place the oil in a slightly heated oven, if your room is not this warm. -In draining the oil in the cheesecloth, make sure that the room temperature is 76 degrees F. This is to ensure that the oil will not solidify

Answer 3

It takes about 12-20 coconuts depending on the size to produce one liter of virgin coconut oil. The coconut has to be matured otherwise it will not produce the right stuff. It also has to be fermented at the right temperature or use a centrifuge machine, which is costly to the manufacturer.

For law abiding manufacturers, they have to apply for BFAD certification, with dozens of testing to ensure it follows the standard (which some BFAD personnel have no clue at all wasting the owner a lot of time and money going back and forth to that agency) One of the many reasons we are a backward country is due to the inefficient ways a lot of our government agencies conduct themselves with the public whom they supposed to serve. Getting BFAD certification will cause the owner more than P100K plus a lot of wasted time.

Packaging is another cost. Virgin coconut oil has to be stored in a glass bottle. Don't get it in plastic because it is an acid (50% Lauric Acid) and tends to sip in through it that's why when you buy it from plastic bottles, the taste is awful. Actually all oils should be in bottles but because ordinary cooking oil are refined bleached and deodorized RBD), we unsuspectingly think that the oil is good but we are cooking with traces of plasticized bottles and potentially rancid oil that we can't really tell because the rancidity odor has been deodorized. With virgin coconut oil, you can immediately determine if it is rancid or not because it is produced without masking its real aroma.

An alternative for you is to create your own oil out of the cocomilk by heating it and allowing all the water to evaporate. You will also have the latik. Use the heated oil as your cooking oil instead of buying bad oils that are hydrogenated, which produced the trans fat that causes a lot of health problems in the last 50 years when the industrialized countries began substituting natural oils like coconut, palm, butter and lard with hydrogenated margarines, soybean, canola and corn oils. While you may not have some of the volatile matters from virgin coconut oil, you still benefit from the antiviral, anti-microbial properties of the heated coconut oil.

Answer 4

SERIOUS answer:

Virgin coconut oil is produced laboriously and this is the overriding factor why it is expensive even if coconuts are abundant in the country.

Virgin Coconut Oil can only be achieved by using fresh coconut meat or what is called non-copra. Chemicals and high heating are not used in further refining, since the natural, pure coconut oil is very stable with a shelf life of several years. There are currently two main processes of manufacturing Virgin Coconut Oil:

1. Quick drying of fresh coconut meat which is then used to press out the oil. Using this method, minimal heat is used to quick dry the coconut meat, and the oil is then pressed out via mechanical means (not much elaborate machinery is available or is considered impractical for usage due to high costs and shipping fees and taxes getting the machines in the country).

2. Wet-milling. With this method the oil is extracted from fresh coconut meat without drying first. "Coconut milk" is expressed first by pressing. The oil is then further separated from the water. Methods which can be used to separate the oil from the water include boiling, fermentation, refrigeration, enzymes and mechanical centrifuge.


You see, the process of making it (one single yield will only give you very few liters of that pure unrefined or "virgin" coconut extract/oil, or low % yield or recovery and you need to perform another set of the entire process stated above to generate PRODUCTIVE yield, for market supplementation.

LONG laborious multi-step, crude, processing with cheap labor to cost cut in the business venture, span of days to complete the manufacturing process, shelf-life of copra meat sustenance, weather / climatic fluctuations to "dry" the copra, few people willing to do labor work (most go after call centers), etc. ARE all equally LIMITING to the retail price of virgin cocount oil. Besides, POVERTY is also another socio-economic problem which directly affects those who venture into this business. THE gain per se is not so worth the investment of labor and profit. Exporting it is more promising.

Answer 5

well because the process of making the virgin coconut oil is very tedious one,have you seen one. I have,and its a very long process,so even if our coconut is cheap the labor and time that makes the original virgin coconut oil is not.

Answer 6

I disagree, its like sugar , most of your sugar are exported leaving very low stockpile for your own domestic markets and hence pirce inflation.

I figured the same goes to coconut oil and native produce.

Your 14 families ruling business class is to be blamed.

Answer 7

Yes I agree to the first answerer. how about this, just like human, you can seldom seen a virgin.. LOL. Its got to be expensive to find and tried one.

Answer 8

Anything popular for sale will have the highest price vendors think they can charge.

Answer 9

its cheap not expensive