Philippine coconut oil exports rose 25.7 percent in May from a year earlier, reversing 10 straight months of decline, helped by improved demand, preliminary data from an industry group showed on Friday.

The Southeast Asian nation, the world's largest exporter of coconut oil, shipped 58,000 tons of the commodity from May 1 to 27, compared with 46,132 tons for all of May 2008, the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines Inc (UCAP) said in a report.

"There's some improvement in demand but it looks like buyers in Europe are still not as aggressive as those in the United States even if prices are low," said a Manila-based trader.

"It's hard to say if this trend will continue. It depends on world economic conditions."

Exports reached 191,385 tons for the period covering Jan 1 to May 27, down 53.2 percent from the first five months of 2008, UCAP said.

The industry group provides a more detailed preliminary monthly report about three weeks after the end of each month.

The Philippines has forecast exports of coconut oil -- used in food, cosmetics and biodiesel -- to slip to 835,000 tons this year from 847,626 tons in 2008, on soft global demand and its increasing use as feedstock by local biodiesel producers.

The Southeast Asian nation exports 80 percent of its output of coconut oil. But it accounts for less than 5 percent of the global fats and oils market due to the drop in local production in the last two years and the growing popularity of other vegetable oils, such as palm.