Efforts to reintroduce neera, the unfermented sweet sap from the inflorescence of coconut palm, as an organic food trend to save the ailing coconut-farming sector from severe crises are likely to get a major boost with a Palakkad-based farmers’collective launching the drink in disposable packs.
Branded Palm Dew, the product is hitting the stands in the district and its surroundings. If found successful, the packaging — offering long shelf life and better marketing possibilities — would be adopted by all the 29 companies registered at the behest of the Agriculture Department across the State for neera production.
At the initial stage, it was Palakkad Coconut Producers’ Limited (PCPL) that undertook the task to market neera in disposable packs with a new look.
The much-hyped movement to market neera on a large scale had lost its steam in recent months with the product lacking long shelf life. Companies had to sell the produce the same day. Attempts to bottle it using plastic cans backfired with consumers complaining about change in taste. As a result, twenty of the companies had stopped functioning.
Even in the case of the PCPL with 25,000 affiliated coconut growers, hardly 50 members are manufacturing neera at present. The PCPL has now entered into a contract with a packaging company in Erode in Tamil Nadu to pack the drink. The PCPL has been marketing 4,000 packets of neera, each weighing 200 ml. The company has plans to start its own packing unit at the proposed multicrore coconut park in Palakkad.
Meanwhile, it has also approached the Agriculture Department to permit the producers’ companies to use the packing facilities available at the department’s Nadukkara Agro-Produces Company at Muvattupuzha. Slight modifications of the machinery would help pack all the neera being generated across the State, says PCPL officials.
