CMIC

US best-selling coconut juice brand Vita Coco partnered with the Philippines’ leading fruit beverage exporter AgriNurture Inc. (ANI) to build a new coconut juice production facility in Pili, Camarines Sur. The new US$5-million manufacturing facility will have an eventual output capacity of 36 million liters of coconut juice each year. Construction of the new facility, which sits on a two-hectare property in Barangay San Jose in Pili, will be completed in May 2012. The local government of Camarines Sur hosted the groundbreaking ceremony with Governor L-Ray Villafuerte, executives from Vita Coco and ANI, Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Bernadette Puyat as well as local suppliers of coco juice gracing the occasion.

Vita Coco® is the brand that started the United States’ craze for fresh coconut water. In the US Vita Coco is sold at over 20,000 retailers including Whole Food Market, GNC, Kroger, Publix, Ralph’s, Stop & Shop/Giant, Select Costco and Wal-Mart stores and many chain and independent groceries. It is also sold in major US airports and on university campuses, as well as online at Amazon.com. The brand is available in seven flavors: Pure, Pineapple, Peach & Mango,Acai & Pomegranate,Tangerine, Passion Fruit and New TropicalFruit, a flavor co-created with Rihanna, the face of Vita Coco’s recent advertising campaign.

In a related development, Agrinurture Inc. announced plans to build three more coconut water processing facilities in the Visayas and Mindanao within 18 months to meet the growing American demand. “We are not satisfied with just one processing plant in Camarines Sur. We are building two or three more facilities all over the country, probably one in Visayas and two more in Mindanao. All of these will happen in the next 12 to 18 months,” said AgriNurture president and chief executive AntonioTiu. Each plant will have a capacity of 36 million liters of processed coconut water. (UCAP Bulletin)