Coconut conundrum

IN a time of stress, the impossible sometimes comes to pass. The Government has decided to import coconuts from next week onwards to combat the rising cost of living that has become the bane of festive seasons.

As Christmas and New Year looms closer, people are readying to empty their wallets at the altars of checkout counters at supermarkets and kades countrywide. At a time when coconut has become almost a luxury item, on the surface the move of the Government seems practical. However, as always, the flipside of the coin remains local manufacturers, who are still struggling to sell their products at a good price and more often than not end up being fleeced by the middlemen.

Interestingly, Greenfield Enterprises, a coconut plantation in Vanathavilluwa, in the Puttalam District, was awarded the Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) award, a global recognition for environmentally-sustainable products recently. It is now the world’s most widely implemented farm certification scheme.

The owner of Greenfield is Dr. Rohan Ratnayake, a Sri Lankan-born Norwegian who returned to his motherland to found one of the most successful coconut plantations, which eventually grew to become over a 1,000 acres. The area that he chose was arid and most thought that agriculture was not possible, but he proved them wrong by adapting top technology-backed ideas that revolutionised coconut plantations.  

This is a successful story worth boasting about. Yet in Government-owned plantations, each acre that should have 64 coconut trees only has half that number; production is not only low but of high cost. This results in massive wastage of resources and the result is that local producers are neglected while imports create a lopsided playing field. Ironically the plants, technology and expertise that made Greenfield an internationally-recognised success has also been unable to do the same for Government plantations. One wonders at the difference.

Another point is, the world over palm oil cultivation is growing exponentially. A few decades ago only 2% of the world grew palm oil and the popular crop was coconut; now the tide is changing, with coconut becoming rarer. Many countries such as the Philippines which grew coconut have now switched to palm, creating a demand in the global market for coconuts. With the development of coconut fibre industries, the outside of the coconut has become more precious and more plantations should be encouraged to engage in value additions in this regard.

The Coconut Development Board recently stated that it had a company willing to bottle ‘kurumba’ water for export. Given its taste and nutritional value, the concept was expected to be a hit, but it was shelved as young coconuts needed to be plucked from as many as 1,000 acres and neither the Government nor private estates had that level of resources. So a fantastic investment opportunity went begging.

Turning to domestic consumption, the threat of disease has resulted in 400,000 odd trees being culled in the Southern Province and many are worried that the threat will continue. They are concerned that the disease will reduce the number of coconuts released to the domestic market and as prices have shown, this is a valid concern. All stakeholders have to come together and outline a practical national strategy if Sri Lanka is to become secure in essential food items, at the very least.