Coconut cream in place of coconuts to address shortage

• Coconut prices increased due to reduced supply and high export demand    

By Huzefa Aliasger  

Coconut cream which is now only an export product will be  released to the local market to address the coconut shortage in the market,  an official said.   

 Coconut prices have soared in the market these days in the midst of a shortage. Chairman of the Coconut Development Authority Shantha  Ranathunga said that his office plans to introduce coconut cream in  the local market, a product currently meant exclusively for export only at the  moment.  Coconut cream is produced from desiccated coconut, which tastes  exactly like coconut.  

He said the need for coconut cream as an alternative  to coconuts is that “when coconuts are used in households, there is  wastage.” However, he said coconut shells, paring, coconut water and  residue from scraped coconut after squeezing for milk are wasted in  domestic households when nuts are used. However, he said these could be  used for various other export products when nuts are used for products  such as cream, milk or powder at industrial level.    

“When the scraped coconut is squeezed for milk manually, there  is a lot of residue wasted. Still, this wastage can be reduced to some  extent when it is done through mechanical blending. When it is done at  industrial level, it can be reduced further. Then, there is  another advantage. Once edible meat in nuts is taken, shells are left. Those  can be exported as activated carbon. Coconut paring (the brownish outer  covering of coconut kernel serving as a protective layer) is also used  for another export product. Even residue after coconut meat is ground is  used for low-fat desiccated coconut,” he said.   

The price hike of coconut is attributed to the shortage in supply and an increase in demand in the export market.  
The introduction of coconut cream is expected to increase  export revenue by increasing the supply of coconuts to export industries to  meet high demand.   

He said ‘coconut cream’ will be available in glass jars in the market.