19 - 25 May - Members of Prosperity Initiative's Sector Feasibility Team conducted a benchmarking study in the Philippines to investigate the major companies and institutions involved in the world's largest coconut industry. Provincial officials from Ben Tre, Viet Nam's leading producer of coconut products and one of Prosperity Initiative's main partners, also attended.

Nigel Smith, Hoang Thi Thu Dong and Nguyen My Ha from Prosperity Initiative and Nguyen Truc Son, Director of the Investment Promotion Centre of Ben Tre, and Nguyen Thi Le Thuy, Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology and Former Director of the Coconut Research Centre, participated in the benchmarking tour.

The purpose of the trip was to gather information on the industry and allow provincial officials from Ben Tre to see firsthand the best practices, business propositions and lessons learned from the Philippine experience in becoming the world leader in the coconut industry. The Team visited plantations, cooperatives and government agencies in Manila and in the southern Da Vao islands, the largest coconut cultivation area in the country.

On the tour, the Ben Tre officials and Prosperity Initiative Team gained an understanding of how the Philippines has made a concerted effort to invest in research and technology to develop the industry and export a wide array of products, including desiccated coconut, coconut oil, virgin coconut oil and coconut milk amongst others.

In addition, the Philippine industry has a very well established infrastructure and government support through various means. Associations for each subsector conduct research on a daily, weekly and monthly basis and update their members regularly on changes in the daily market price. A variety of cooperative models are in place as well to support poor farmers. In some cases, farmers have contracts directly with companies, eliminating the need for middle men.

Ben Tre, which has no coconut associations or similar cooperatives, can learn from seeing how the Philippines has supported its growing industry. Prosperity Initiative will integrate the findings from this trip into its coconut sector profile report due later in 2009. Similar to an earlier benchmarking trip to Sri Lanka, this tour has helped Prosperity Initiative and Ben Tre understand the potential for industry development and future collaboration.