The establishment of the second king coconut cultivation village in the vicinity of Murutawela Raluwa village with the aim of exportation was done yesterday (25) by the Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industry, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera.
The first village to grow king Coconut for export started last year in Pahala Muruthawela and 10,000 king Coconut saplings are going to be planted in these two villages.
Currently, there is a huge demand for Sri Lankan king Coconut in the United Arab Emirates. In addition, there is a high demand for king Coconut produced in our country from many other countries.
About 252,000 king coconuts are exported from this country to the United Arab Emirates per week. By exporting king Coconut, an income of two billion rupees has been earned in 2022, and last year (2023) the expected income was six billion rupees.
King Coconut is a native crop of Sri Lanka and although many countries have tried to grow king coconut, those efforts have failed due to lack of high taste like king coconut in Sri Lanka. Because of this, Sri Lanka still has the monopoly in the world market for king coconut in this country. In order to harvest the maximum fruits from this situation, several villages especially in the Murutawela area have been used to cultivate king coconut plantations as a crop from now on.
Accordingly, the minister distributed 1600 king coconut saplings to the farmers yesterday (25) for the cultivation of the second king coconut cultivation model village. The Chairman of the Coconut Cultivation Board Mrs. Madhavi Herath and others participated in that event.
The minister who expressed his views here-The tastiest king coconut in the world is the Sri Lankan king coconut. Therefore, steps will be taken to make Sri Lankan king coconut popular in the world with the Sri Lanka Sweet Coconut brand, and the Coconut Development Board and the Coconut Development Authority have been given the necessary program for that.
And currently, in many countries including the United Arab Emirates, king coconuts are sold for 1500 to 2000 rupees per fruit by Sri Lanka. There is no competition from any country in the world for the king coconuts of SL. Now the competition is between the businessmen of our country. 200 containers of king coconut are exported to the Dubai market per month.
At present, the export of king coconuts to our country fetches as little as 1000 rupees per fruit. The minister also mentioned that the exporters agreed to maintain this amount at the level of 2000 rupees.
It is certain that king coconut will become the main export crop of our country in the future. Even now we cannot provide even 02 percent of the high demand in the world. Therefore, the Minister also mentioned that he advised the Coconut Cultivation Board to take steps to expand king coconut cultivation country wide.
(dailynews.lk)
