Coconut export company, SPN Trading (Pvt) Ltd, has increased its export of fresh coconuts by 30%.
An official of the company said that it is a victory for the country to earn over Rs. 19,000 million from the export of coconut-related products in March 2024.
“We are engaged in exporting a variety of coconut based products especially fresh nuts, desiccated coconut and coconut oil where the volumes have increased by an average of 30% from January to April compared to last year,” said Ravi Nanayakkara, Managing Director of SPN Trading (Pvt) Ltd, a coconut export company in Sri Lanka. Its principal company PNS Business Inc. based in Calgary Canada told Sunday Observer Business..
He confirmed a further increased volume is expected during the second half of this year but he doubts his inability to cope up the demand as there is a shortage of fresh nuts in the country.
“There’s a high demand for Sri Lanka’s fresh coconut in the global market because quality-wise our coconut is the first choice compared to other countries,” he said.
Nanayakkara said Indonesia is ranked as No.1, Philippines, India and Sri Lanka are the top four producers, followed by Brazil, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, and Malaysia, respectively. Sri Lanka is the fourth largest exporter of Fresh and Dried Coconuts in the world along with other coconut exports.
He said that their major exports are to Pakistan, Canada, USA and Middle East while catering to other markets such as Europe, Australia, and Japan in lesser quantities.
Nanayakkara said Pakistan is a large market for coconut and his company alone export about five 40 FCL shipments per month which is closer to 200,000 nuts whereas few other leading exporters also export similarly to Pakistan.
He said although there is a big demand for Sri Lankan coconut it is only less than 5% of fresh coconuts are being exported. He said “We do not push hard on sales orders due to the fear of supply”. He stressed that the government needs to encourage coconut farmers and provide further technical assistance and assist the small cultivators to increase harvest in order to increase export volumes. He also indicated that the smallholding sector who contributes over 70%, of the total coconut harvest but this sector is not well organized neither state authorities have not spared much efforts to reform them.
Nanayakkara pointed out that based on the assumptions of the Coconut Development Board the government has a plan to enhance the annual coconut crop to 3,600 million and further aims to reach 4,000 million (4 billion) nuts per year, but the present outcome is only approximately 3,000 million nuts which is not sufficient to further explore the global market. He said over 2,000 million nuts of the harvest is consumed locally by the citizens for their daily staple and the remaining less than 1,000 million nuts or about 0.8 tons of coconuts are available for the export of fresh nuts, desiccated coconut and all other coconut based products.
“If we could increase exports by another 600 million or 0.5 tons with a harvest of 3,600 million nuts the whole excess can be used for exports and reach to No. 2 or 3 positions in the global coconut export market. If we harvest the government’s aim of over 4 billion coconuts, we can easily export over three billion nuts or around 2.5 million tons, thereby achieving the status as No.1 exporter of coconuts in the world,” Nanayakkara said. – TJ
