http://in.news.yahoo.com/indiaabroad/20080410/r_t_ians_bs_india/tbs-there-s-a-lot-india-can-do-with-the-46e8b08.html

 There's a lot India can do with the wonder nut

 Thu, Apr 10 10:16 AM

 New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) It's a wonder nut all right. You put it in
 your hair, drink its water, grate and squeeze it for milk, and use it
 as fibre. And India can do even more with the coconut, say experts.

 With coconut prices failing to keep up with inflationary trends and
 competition growing, planters of this versatile nut are looking for
 alternative ways to enhance their incomes.

 Coconut has traditionally given India oil - used for edible purposes,
 toiletry and industrial use. Coconut is also used for rafters for
 roofs, to make broomsticks and handicrafts.

 P.K. Thampan of the Kochi-based Peekay Tree Crops Development
 Foundation said in a discussion put out online: 'Coconut water-based
 vinegar is being produced on a commercial scale in a few units in
 Kerala and the product is enjoying good consumer acceptance both
 within and outside the state.'

 Of the total production of coconuts, about five percent is consumed in
 the tender form for drinking purposes. The rest is utilised as mature
 nuts for household and religious purposes and for the production of
 edible copra, milling copra and desiccated coconut.

 Some successful coconut ventures include coconut water-based health
 drinks, vinegar and miscellaneous food articles available in global
 markets.

 There is a growing demand for nata de coco in Japan and Malaysia, and
 technology for making it is available. Nata de coco is a chewy,
 gel-like traditional Philippine dessert prepared from coconut water by
 bacterial fermentation.

 There is also a large demand globally for kernel and sap based coconut
 products, coconut liquid milk, coco milk powder, and desiccated
 coconut.

 Says farmer-journalist Shree Padre, who edits the journal Adike
 Patrike (Farmer's Own Media), 'In the recent past, we have carried
 stories of tender coconut minimal processing, virgin coconut oil,
 coconut broomstick home industry and more.'

 Padre argues that the 'need of the hour' is to help farmers build
 value-added products from their crops, which otherwise mostly earn
 only depressed prices.

 Solution Exchange for the Food and Nutrition Security Community, a
 United Nations initiative to share information within India, recently
 raised this issue and got some useful hints about the versatile plant.

 A coconut palm has 12 different crops at any point of time, from the
 opening flower to the ripe nut. Each part is a source of food, fibre,
 medicine or material for producing handicrafts.

 New ideas are coming up for tender coconut water sales too.

 Tender green coconut can be trimmed, shaped and attractively marketed
 by shrink-wrapping to prevent desiccation. Thailand has aptly used
 this method.

 In India, several companies are innovatively marketing coconut water
 on green carts in Hyderabad, as 'Tender Fresh' in Bangalore and
 'Coconectar' in Kerala.

 Hyderabad-based D.S.K. Rao added: 'I always felt that coconut farming
 has a greater potential than what is being currently exploited. I was
 pleasantly surprised to see in Hyderabad airport a green cart selling
 tender coconuts.'

 Other commercial value additions for coconut, which are being
 increasingly noted, are canned sweet toddy, one of the major coconut
 products produced and marketed in Sri Lanka; coconut sugar - Indonesia
 and Thailand are the leaders - and coconut oil.

 Coconut oil, besides being edible, is used in soaps, toiletry
 articles, safety glasses, rubber substitutes, paints and synthetic
 detergents. Glycerine, derived from coconut oil, is also in demand for
 medicines, personal care products, food and beverages and animal feed.

 Virgin coconut (VC) oil is now emerging as the most valuable coconut
 product, with the Philippines as the major exporter. The export price
 ranges from $US8.00 to $12.00 per litre of cold processed oil.

 Virgin coconut oil is derived from fresh coconuts (rather than dried,
 as in copra). It is produced by either quick drying of fresh coconut
 meat, wet milling (oil is extracted from fresh coconut without
 drying), or by adjustment of the water content, then the pressing of
 the coconut flesh results in the direct extraction of free-flowing
 oil.

 In India, the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI) has
 standardised a virgin coconut oil process by developing the necessary
 equipment suitable for micro enterprise and has worked on snowball
 tender coconut.

 Besides, CPCRI has developed a range of copra dryers, which use
 agricultural waste as fuel. Kerala Agro Industries Corporation Ltd has
 applied these technologies.

 Suggestions coming up include providing tender coconuts to
 schoolchildren under the Mid-Day Meal scheme that would greatly
 increase the demand.

ENDS

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