CATARMAN, Northern Samar — Northern Samar strengthens its bid as the coconut capital in Eastern Visayas with the planting of over 66,000 coconut seedlings in the entire province.

Reynato Dubongco, chief of the Philippine Coconut Authority in Northern Samar, said the province was allocated 66,781 coconut seedlings by the central office out of the 2 million seedlings distributed nationwide for the nationwide simultaneous planting.

He said more than 860,000 seedlings were earmarked for the whole Eastern Visayas region for the nationwide simultaneous planting as the highlight of the 38th National Coconut Month celebration.

Coconut is Northern Samar’s top crop producing 261,000 metric tons in a year according to the report of Philippine Statistics Authority in 2022.

The Provincial Government of Northern Samar continues to partner with various agencies in the national government to enliven the coconut industry in the province, a major agricultural product in Northern Samar.

Northern Samar’s thriving coconut industry was spared in the onslaught of typhoon “Yolanda” in November 2013 continue to remain as the main source of income of local farmers.

Data from the PCA Northern Samar shows the province has 84,000 hectares of coconut plantation that yields an average of 315,000 metric tons of coconut per year providing livelihood opportunities to coconut farmers with several byproducts of coconut trees