Today, Saturday, 05 December 2020, I am surprised by my fellow Filipino Eufemio Rasco’s Facebook post and the comments that follow:
Why is coconut milk more expensive than cow’s milk? Is it more nutritious?
Eufemio Rasco: Economists will find this difficult to explain. It defies law of supply and demand.
Sherwin Rasco: Hmmm…Eka mas maiksi ang shelf life ng cocomilk. (Shelf life of coco milk is shorter.)
Donna Lampano: Uhmm.. Maybe because of its health benefits. Kasi nga naman (You have to consider), “Health is Wealth” kaya ayan (now then), it costs more…
Chito Reynoso: Brod Prof. Dong (Rasco), I believe it’s mainly economics specifically supply. World milk production vs coco milk production is a virtual Goliath and David scenario. Est milk prod annual is 900 M liters dominated by India, China, US, NZ and some Euro countries, while coco milk, mainly used for Asian cuisine, is only in the 100K liter mark. Like in Canada, in the recent perhaps 2 years, I know farmers had to literally dump milk in order to decrease supply because the prices were so low.
Now, my comments.
No, there is no defying of the Law of Supply & Demand – it is easy to explain that the cow’s milk producers, the dairymen, defy logic by overproducing and oversupplying the market. It does not matter whether the shelf life of coco milk is shorter – if the public want it, they will snap the supply.
Yes, it may be the health benefits. Yes, “Health is Wealth” – at this time of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, health is #1 concern. “Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates, founder of Western medicine.
And about cow’s milk producers dumping their milk when there is an over-supply – there is almost always an over-supply, so I’m surprised about the stubbornness of cow’s milk producers – the people, not the cows!
Mr Rasco, who started this one, does not tell us his source of his news, but it really does not matter. Or rather, I thank him for it, for it gives me an idea for a subject matter in PH extension in agriculture:
Farmers should be producing more and more coco milk than ever – Especially that it is more expensive than cow’s milk!
That will go along fine with growing cacao as intercrop in coconut farms. (See my essay, 04 December 2020, “Already, Quezon Is The Chocolate Capital Of Luzon – But Quezonians Still Have To Use Their Coconuts![2]” Brave New World PH). Consider also that, according to Chito Reynoso, cow’s milk production is a Goliath (900 M liters annually) compared to coco milk production, a David (100 K liters only). So, there is over-production of cow’s milk and under-production of coco milk: To do good business, you know what to do.
So I’m hoping the Department of Agriculture under Secretary of Agriculture William Dar will soon assist coco farmers as much as they deserve!@517
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