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| Sunday, 31 October 2004 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Poor harvest, nuts up by Elmo Leonard The coconut (curry nut) the housewife in the suburbs of Colombo needs for cooking costs a high, Rs 18 to Rs 20 per nut due to a poor coconut harvest this year, stemming from dry weather experienced during 2003. Traders anticipate an increase in the price of coconuts on the run up to the new year. But, the five lorry-loads of coconuts sold per day at Rs 13 per nut, by the Coconut Cultivation Board at green grocery fairs in Nugegoda, Wellawatte, Dehiwala and Batteramulle will check the rising cost of coconuts around the city of Colombo, thinks President, Coconut Growers Association of Sri Lanka Ranjith Dias. Dias, said that traders jack up the price of coconuts during the months of November and December which are low cropping months, while the coconut crop increases from July to December. This year Sri Lanka's coconut harvest has been put down to a low 2,700 million nuts, by the Coconut Development Authority. This year has been relatively wet and a better harvest is expected next year. In a good cropping year Sri Lanka's nut harvest is around 3500 million coconuts. Sri Lanka must produce 4000 million coconuts per year to keep prices down and her desiccated coconut and coconut oil industries moving, Dias said. Another reason for the possible stall in the rise of curry nuts is that the desiccated coconut miller will not pay more than Rs 13 per nut, currently, as the local cost of production of this commodity will then go beyond the current international price. Sri Lankans are the highest per capita consumers of coconuts and 60 percent of the island's coconut harvest accounts for cooking. This year, Sri Lanka's exports of desiccated coconut is a bleak 60,000 tonnes and expected to reach 72,000 tonnes by year-end. While the FOB (Free on Board) price of desiccated coconut is Rs 95 per kilogram the 55 desiccated coconut mills in the country work two days per week, the trade said. Most of the coconut oil mills are out of production this year or work to minimum capacity, with imported palm oil freely available and sold as coconut oil. A bottle of coconut oil is retailed at around Rs 85 and the local price of coconut oil is Rs 85,000 per tonne, the wholesale trade in Pettah said. |
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