Sarapee Yuadyong and John V. Tucker are members of a growing legion of crusaders for coconut as health food. One makes social interventions that touch people’s lives in poor Thai villages.
The other is making waves in the ice-cream market in the USA. They defy common logic or even more common understanding of the traditional coconut industry, known for coconut candies and desiccated coconut.
Uraia Waibuta fights an entirely different battle for the cause of the coconut.
He is trying to spread the word that coconut oil is a healthy cooking medium across the islands that make up the Republic of Fiji. Put together, the three represent a revival of fortunes for coconut-based food products across the world.
From being perceived as cause of heart troubles, coconut products are now held up as healthy and easy on the heart in the USA, says Mr. Tucker, president of So Delicious Dairy Free ice-creams in Oregon. Perceptions are changing, he says, as he explains why he is here in Kochi at the five-day meet of the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community (APCC), which represents 90 per cent of the coconut-based industry worldwide. He is keen to enlist the help of APCC to get the US FDA stamp on the health qualities of coconut-based food products. Once that is done, he says, it will have a domino effect.
Coconut milk has already emerged as competition for soya and almond milk in the US market. He said in a presentation at the APCC meet that his company’s net sales during 2012 was expected to rise 50 per cent over 2011, driven largely by coconut milk-based innovations.
Ms. Sarapee works with small Thai communities in Samutsong Kram, helping coconut farmers increase their income through diversifying products.
She says she devised a method to extract sugar from inflorescence sap, which is now fetching rich dividends.
With a big market for the product in Singapore, Farmers’ income level has risen 40 per cent with value addition, says Ms. Sarapee, whose company Chiwadi markets other innovations too.
Mr. Waibuta, director at the Ministry of Primary Industries, says Fijians depend almost entirely on imported vegetable oil for their cooking needs.
The attitude, however, is changing as his ministry tries to create awareness and reduce the cost of milling copra across the 300-odd islands that make up the republic.
APCC estimates
According to an APCC estimate, the global business in coconuts and coconut-based products is worth $ 8,784 million, with the APCC representing more than 80 per cent of it.
India exports around Rs. 1,000 crore worth of coconut products annually, the bulk of it accounted for by activated carbon.
