Sri Lanka short of king coconut despite growing global demand
The Morning: Despite Sri Lanka’s potential for king coconut exports, the country is short of king coconuts relative to the global demand it has, The Daily Morning Business learnt.
Speaking to The Daily Morning Business, Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka (CRI) Director Sanathanie Ranasinghe said: “There is a limited amount of king coconut plants available. Therefore, we (CRI) need to increase the production to respond to the global demand of king coconut and the CRI has established a king coconut seed garden for saplings to the growers and encourage them to grow king coconuts in their estates,”
She also pointed out that the reason behind the short supply of king coconut is that people usually do not grow them in their estates like coconuts. Speaking of the said king coconut seed garden the CPI officer said: “We use our own king coconut seedling which is unique to Sri Lanka and is found only in Sri Lanka.”
Moreover, Sri Lanka’s major king coconut export market is Middle East countries which makes up to 80% of the nuts.
The CRI officer further said that the order volume for king coconut has gradually increased over the years. In 2022, the country exported around 11 million king coconuts. This year it has surpassed the 11 million king coconut export mark already with an 117% increment.
According to the CRI, they have also developed a technology to improve the shelf life of king coconuts because the king coconut is a tender nut and it is exported as a whole fresh nut, which can be rotten in 4 to 5 days. Therefore, the novel technology helps to increase the shelf life by keeping the quality for almost a month’s period.
“The technology improvements are also a reason for the increasing demand from overseas to use the king coconut as a beverage because it is a natural beverage,” she noted.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s export sector is one of the key revenue generators of the country. Local export authorities are currently engaged in promoting local exports including export crops to new foreign markets while looking at further diversifying Sri Lanka’s export product portfolio. It is in such a backdrop that Sri Lanka is looking at exporting king coconuts to foreign markets given the growing demand for them. While the exporting of king coconuts has opened up a new business opportunity, the shortage of king coconuts being produced in Sri Lanka has created further business/investment opportunities. With the many trade agreements as well as trade concessions enjoyed by the country providing an impetus to Sri Lanka’s export sector and the expanding opportunities in the sector, foreign businesses/investors who invest in the sector could be assured of quick returns on investment. Given Sri Lanka’s expanding business/investment opportunities in the country’s export sector, foreign businesses/investors could confidently explore these opportunities while also looking at forming partnerships or joint ventures with local businesses engaged in the sector with the aim of expansion.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20231116/Z_1 |