Coconut farmers bite into biscuit market

KOCHI: The Coconut Development Board has introduced a string of value added products to increase industrial use of coconuts and give growers another source of income.

CDB’s chief coconut development officer Rajeev George said that three products — coconut biscuits, flavoured coconut juice and coconut chunks — will help in supplementing the income of coconut growers and help in cutting their dependence on demand for coconut oil and copra.

"At present, around 15 per cent of the 21,665 million coconuts produced in the country go for industrial use. Our aim is to increase it to 25 per cent," he said.

CDB intends to offer the technology for manufacturing these products free to 53 coconut producer companies that have been formed in the southern states to promote value-added products from coconut.

These companies have been focussing on the production of neera, the non-alcoholic drink taken from coconut palms, and its subsequent byproducts.

In Kerala alone, 50,000 litres of neera are produced in a week, nearly half of which goes into the manufacture of value-added products such as jaggery, honey and sugar.