Raphael John-Lall

World Co­conut Day was cel­e­brat­ed in ear­ly Sep­tem­ber and agri­cul­ture and busi­ness con­sul­tant, Riyadh Mo­hammed, be­lieves that this in­dus­try has an im­por­tant role to play in T&T’s eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment.

In an in­ter­view with the Busi­ness Guardian, Mo­hammed not­ed that World Co­conut Day was ob­served on Sep­tem­ber 2 and high­light­ed why it is im­por­tant.

“The im­por­tance, ben­e­fits, and ver­sa­til­i­ty of the co­conut palm are cel­e­brat­ed on this day. It is ob­served once a year and was found­ed by the Asian and Pa­cif­ic Co­conut Com­mu­ni­ty (APCC) in 2009. The day al­so aims to raise aware­ness of the cul­tur­al, nu­tri­tion­al, and eco­nom­ic sig­nif­i­cance of co­conuts world­wide, es­pe­cial­ly in trop­i­cal re­gions where grow­ing co­conuts is a ma­jor source of rev­enue. Cel­e­bra­tions usu­al­ly in­clude aware­ness cam­paigns, work­shops, co­conut-themed cui­sine, and ac­tiv­i­ties to pro­mote sus­tain­able co­conut cul­ti­va­tion and use.”

Ac­cord­ing to da­ta Mo­hammed pro­vid­ed, glob­al co­conut pro­duc­tion is pre­dict­ed to reach 3.56 mil­lion met­ric tons (MMT) in 2025, a slight in­crease from 3.50 MMT in 2024.

With an ex­pect­ed in­crease in out­put from 1.57 MMT in 2024 to rough­ly 1.60 MMT in 2025, the Philip­pines re­mains the lead­ing pro­duc­er. Oth­er sig­nif­i­cant pro­duc­ers, like In­dia and In­done­sia, are al­so ex­pect­ed to have suc­cess­ful out­put ris­es.

He then spoke about the co­conut’s his­to­ry and im­por­tance in T&T.

“Co­conut farms have long played a sig­nif­i­cant role in Trinidad’s agri­cul­tur­al sec­tor. In the past, the pri­ma­ry mo­ti­va­tions for grow­ing co­conuts were co­pra (dry co­conut ker­nel) and co­conut oil. Grad­u­al­ly, con­sumer pref­er­ences shift­ed in favour of co­conut wa­ter, which has be­come more well-liked be­cause of its mois­tur­iz­ing prop­er­ties as well as its an­tibac­te­r­i­al and an­tiox­i­dant ad­van­tages.”

He added al­though they were not one of the most prof­itable crops in ear­li­er decades when com­pared to sug­ar­cane or co­coa, co­conuts have seen an in­crease in their eco­nom­ic worth in re­cent years due to spe­cialised mar­kets in co­conut wa­ter, processed meals, oils, hand­i­crafts, fur­ni­ture, culi­nary items, and by-prod­ucts.

Mo­hammed al­so said that the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land, and Fish­eries (MALF) has recog­nised these ef­forts and made in­vest­ments in pro­grammes such as in the Pub­lic Sec­tor In­vest­ment Pro­gramme (PSIP_ which is the Co­conut Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and Re­plant­i­ng Pro­gramme. That aims to boost yields and pro­vide farm­ers with ac­cess to pre­mi­um seed nuts.

Fur­ther­more, he said the col­lab­o­ra­tion with Guyana, which sup­plied 5,000 co­conut seedlings and tech­ni­cal sup­port for shade-house prop­a­ga­tion, is a re­cent il­lus­tra­tion of how co­conuts are be­com­ing an in­creas­ing­ly im­por­tant as­pect of re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion and strate­gic agri­cul­tur­al plan­ning.

Trinidad’s co­conut plan­ta­tions

Mo­hammed said the east coast of Trinidad is renowned for its ex­ten­sive and pro­duc­tive co­conut plan­ta­tions and this re­gion has tra­di­tion­al­ly been a cen­tre for co­conut cul­ti­va­tion due to its sandy-loamy soils and coastal en­vi­ron­ment, which sup­port the growth of co­conuts.

“The con­cen­tra­tion of plan­ta­tions here stim­u­lates lo­cal economies by fos­ter­ing re­lat­ed agro-in­dus­tries and gen­er­at­ing jobs. The east coast of Trinidad is one of the most cru­cial re­gions for co­conut cul­ti­va­tion. This is demon­strat­ed by the tar­get­ed im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Co­conut Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and Re­plant­i­ng Pro­gram in that area.”

He then said this re­gion­al em­pha­sis:

• In­creas­es em­ploy­ment in the area, es­pe­cial­ly in har­vest­ing, field main­te­nance, and nurs­ery man­age­ment;

• At­tracts in­ter­na­tion­al and gov­ern­men­tal sup­port, high­light­ing the re­gion’s sig­nif­i­cance in the na­tion­al agri­cul­tur­al plan;

• Boosts eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty through val­ue-added co­conut pro­cess­ing.

Al­though com­pre­hen­sive eco­nom­ic im­pact fig­ures may still be in their in­fan­cy, he said the strate­gic fo­cus on this re­gion re­flects its cur­rent and po­ten­tial pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, sup­port­ing both rur­al eco­nom­ic growth and na­tion­al food se­cu­ri­ty.

“The Gov­ern­ment’s Co­conut Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and Re­plant­i­ng Pro­gramme pro­vides farm­ers with train­ing and high-qual­i­ty seed nuts to boost pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. This ef­fort sus­tains the re­gion’s eco­nom­ic con­tri­bu­tion through steady co­conut out­put that sup­ports lo­cal mar­kets and spe­cial­ized com­pa­nies.”

Mo­hammed high­light­ed the tra­di­tion­al us­es of co­conuts in T&T cul­ture:

• Culi­nary: Co­conut oil for cook­ing, co­conut bread, sug­ar cake, chut­ney, co­conut tart, co­conut chips, and the us­age of co­conut wa­ter in cus­tom­ary drinks.

• Tools & crafts: Brooms, jew­ellery, ba­tons, and even home­made crick­et bats are man­u­fac­tured from the husk and shells.

• Fur­ni­ture: Build­ing sup­plies, drums, and oth­er byprod­ucts like toys are kept in the trunk.

• Re­li­gious and cer­e­mo­ni­al pur­pos­es: Hin­du rites and cul­tur­al fes­ti­vals fre­quent­ly in­volve the us­age of co­conut.

These cus­tom­ary us­es are di­rect­ly sup­port­ed by near­by plan­ta­tions by:

• Sup­ply­ing raw ma­te­ri­als (wood, husk, and nuts)

• Fa­cil­i­tat­ing niche mar­ket­places (e.g., hand­made goods, craft mer­chants)

• Pro­vid­ing sup­plies to mi­crobusi­ness­es and co­conut ven­dors (such as those sell­ing co­conut wa­ter).

He added that its rep­u­ta­tion as the “tree of life” in T&T cul­ture is fur­ther sup­port­ed by the va­ri­ety of co­conut prod­ucts. The Min­istry’s em­pha­sis on dis­trib­ut­ing high-qual­i­ty seed nuts con­tributes to the preser­va­tion of these cus­toms.

Co­conut farm­ers’ dif­fi­cul­ties

Mo­hammed spoke about the chal­lenges that farm­ers face in T&T and said low yields due to poor plant­i­ng ma­te­r­i­al are one of the chal­lenges faced by co­conut farm­ers.

• Pest and dis­ease pres­sure, such as South Amer­i­can palm wee­vil, red palm mite, and the dev­as­tat­ing yel­low­ing dis­ease.

• Old­er plan­ta­tions with min­i­mal re­plant­i­ng of su­pe­ri­or va­ri­eties.

• Dur­ing the COVID-19 epi­dem­ic, labour short­ages be­came more acute.

• Cli­mate stres­sors, such as pro­longed drought or flood­ing.

• In­suf­fi­cient lo­cal in­fra­struc­ture for pro­cess­ing byprod­ucts.

He spoke about ini­tia­tives to pro­mote en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly co­conut cul­ti­va­tion.

He said the goal of the Co­conut Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and Re­plant­i­ng Pro­gram is to spread ge­net­i­cal­ly bet­ter seed nuts, es­pe­cial­ly those with a high-wa­ter con­tent and re­sis­tance to dis­ease.

• Shade huts will be con­struct­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Guyana to en­able the ef­fi­cient prop­a­ga­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of 5,000 seedlings;

• Field schools and train­ing for farm­ers on pest and dis­ease con­trol, as well as op­ti­mum agro­nom­ic ap­proach­es, are pro­vid­ed by the Ex­ten­sion, Train­ing and In­for­ma­tion Ser­vices Di­vi­sion (ETIS) and re­gion­al coun­ties;

• Re­search and crop pro­tec­tion: soil test­ing, pheromone trap­ping, di­ag­nos­tic clin­ics, and on-site pest con­trol sup­port;

• Im­proved agro­nom­ic prac­tices are used to in­crease soil fer­til­i­ty and In­te­grat­ed Pest Man­age­ment (IPM);

• Sup­port through part­ner­ships with the Agri­cul­tur­al De­vel­op­ment Bank (ADB) for in­cen­tives and mech­a­ni­sa­tion.

World Co­conut Day Cel­e­bra­tions in T&T

Mo­hammed ar­gued that al­though World Co­conut Day, which is ob­served on Sep­tem­ber 2 every year, is not yet well pro­mot­ed in Trinidad, the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture’s Re­search Di­vi­sion has or­gan­ised ed­u­ca­tion­al and aware­ness-rais­ing events, in­clud­ing:

• The Co­conut Unit hosts Face­book Live events to in­form the pub­lic about on­go­ing ini­tia­tives and pro­ce­dures.

• Train­ing ses­sions and sem­i­nars aimed at agro-proces­sors, farm­ers, and ven­dors.

• Field demon­stra­tions and mod­el seed gar­dens that high­light post-har­vest pro­cess­ing, pest con­trol, and prop­a­ga­tion meth­ods.

He said Ini­tia­tives to pro­mote the sec­tor in­clude:

• The on­go­ing dis­sem­i­na­tion of high-yield­ing cul­ti­vars.

• Pub­lic-pri­vate col­lab­o­ra­tions to en­hance val­ue-added prod­uct com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion and mar­ket ac­cess.

• The cre­ation of shade-house tech­nolo­gies and the de­vel­op­ment of mod­el pro­duc­tion sys­tems.

• At­tempts to im­prove mar­ket struc­ture and trace­abil­i­ty by com­pil­ing a data­base of co­conut grow­ers and deal­ers.

He con­clud­ed by say­ing that said these pro­grammes aim to in­crease co­conut farm­ing’s fu­ture mar­ketabil­i­ty, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and eco­nom­ic vi­a­bil­i­ty—par­tic­u­lar­ly in light of the grow­ing de­mand for co­conut wa­ter.