Shot in the arm for king coconut water

The Ministry of Coconut Development will promote King Coconut water in an environment where the inclination is for artificial coloured drinks. The primary objective of this plan is to get people to use the national drink King Coconut in a bigger way, said Chairman, Coconut Development Authority (CDA) D.J.U. Purasinghe.

He said the consumption of King Coconut water without any artificial chemical additives is always good for health and it will also help retain millions of rupees in foreign exchange for the country otherwise drawn by multi-national companies.

Purasinghe said that most people today are used to drinking artificial beverages. These are not good for health. However, there are no such problems in King Coconut water as it is a natural drink. It is free of artificial colouring or chemicals. Moreover, King Coconut is a local drink; our forefathers drank King Coconut in the past. This is an attempt to popularise King Coconut among the youth, and also impart the value of King Coconut to the present generation.

The CDA plans to provide carts for the sale of King Coconut, with special tricycles. This will be more attractive to people as opposed to the earlier sellers who tied King Coconuts on to the luggage of a tricycle.

A special tricycle will be given for the purpose, and all assistance for the seller is available in the tricycle. King Coconut sellers near hospitals and bus stands will be provided with colourful umbrellas and a counter.

The CDA plans to give King Coconut sellers a professional value. Also through these measures people will be provided a good, tastier drink in a hygienic manner. We are taking all these measures to promote King Coconut as a healthy drink among people.

“We will also advertise the King Coconut drink in the populated areas to make people drink King Coconut. Through these advertisements we will impart knowledge on the value of King Coconut.

Action will also be taken to popularise this drink among schoolchildren and university students. In addition we will also promote it among tourists as they like to taste natural drinks food items. King coconut will be made available near tourist hotels.

The CDA will also take steps to improve the living conditions of the people employed in this sector, said the Chairman.

He said that Sri Lanka’s national crop production is inadequate or insufficient for the country’s requirement. In a situation of this nature young coconut usage is not appropriate.

For domestic consumption the requirement is around 1,900 mln., nuts annually.

The annual requirement for coconut oil is around 1,300 mln., nuts. The total annual requirement of coconut is around 3,200 mln nuts.

These figures are sans export industry figures. As a whole we need around 4,000 mln nuts per annum, but the present annual nut production is around 2,700 to 2,800 mln.

King coconut is cultivated in 14,889 hectares, in terms of the tree it is around 2.2 mln. An average of 450 mln nuts of King coconut production is obtained per annum. SG