— Standing, but not yet running

By Margaret Burke
“OVER the next ten years, the Guyana coconut industry will demonstrate consistent growth rates, rising from severe underdevelopment to becoming a fully integrated economic partner at national, regional and global levels.”

COCONUTS, coconuts: an old name with new meaning. In fact, concerns were expressed at the ongoing Guyana Coconut Festival, being held at the Arthur Chung Conference Center at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, not only about the actual aging coconut trees, but also about the mostly aging farmers of this particular industry; and presenters and debates have so far been very passionate over the last two days as they look at the way forward for the industry.
A crop for all seasons and uses Coconuts

The stakeholders include the Government of Guyana, University of Guyana, NAREI, CARDI, APCC, ITC, Brazil, Mexico, Suriname, Jamaica, the National Stakeholders Platform, as well as farmers from the Pomeroon and others.

ROAD MAP
The major aim of this conference is to construct a roadmap which would ensure that this industry is not only sustainable, but is moving in the right direction. Thus some of the main topics included marketing, production and processing, research and development, finance, and other support agencies.

Because of the decline in trade of traditional plantation crops in countries such as Guyana, the National Stakeholder Platform (NSP) has mounted a search for a turnaround with other approaches. And with tremendous amount of work put into planning and executing such a conference, there may have been in some cases some amount of astonishment at the abundance of information which has thus far been disseminated.

State of the Industry
The coconut sector in Guyana has been experiencing rising demand for non-traditional coconut products, especially all natural coconut water and virgin coconut oil. This is in the face of insufficient supplies of coconuts to meet demands for bottling and processing as well as for the international market; aged trees; pests and diseases; a fragmented supply chain, which is in the absence of supply chain management; and also the absence of a developed governance structure to address these issues.

In addition, it has been discovered that several main value added streams have emerged, and these include: the coconut food chain, alternative dairy food, and vegetable market — which has grown some 25-30% per year from 2009 to 2014.
Additionally, there has been a coconut ‘sports drink’ chain launched in early 2000s and grown to US$1.36 billion in 2014. It is projected to reach $US4 billion in 2019.

Then there is the coconut chemicals chain: crude coconut oil, oleo-chemicals, cosmetics, personal care, pharmaceuticals, detergents, biodiesel. It has been noted that there is an increasing trend to consume natural over synthetic fatty alcohols in personal care and cosmetic markets. Hence, 45-50 percent of global consumption of coconut oil is concentrated here.

There is also the ever-increasing demand for the coconut by-products of shell & husk.

The general agreement is that the roadmap would address these and other issues which are confronting the coconut industry as it relates to Guyana.

Global market – taking advantage
Coconut products such as coconut oil, copra and other basic coconut products have to now contend with market demand for ‘naturalness’ in cosmetics and personal care products, which include shampoos and conditioners, skin and hair creams, among others; as well as various types of detergents on the markets, made by companies that emphasise the ‘soft’ yet powerful use of the coconut oil.

The NSP, with full agreement from stakeholders present, noted: “We need to get organized; we need to form strategic commercial alliances (public and private); we need a strategy,” and a strategy is quickly being formulated, which at the end of the summit should make them as well as the rest of Guyana proud.

The NSP has stated that its vision is: Over the next ten years, the Guyana coconut industry will demonstrate consistent growth rates, rising from severe underdevelopment to become a fully integrated economic partner at national, regional and global levels.

Along with this, its stated mission is: To promote the development of the coconut value chain in Guyana, with a balance between industrial production and small scale production and with effective contributions from all stakeholders, including farmers, processors, marketers and government support institutions

The Guyana Coconut Festival is therefore not just about festivities; it is about serious business: having dreams and visions, and then waking with the intent to make reality out of them. And so it is expected that at the conclusion of this ‘grand festival — with all the eating and the drinking, the singing and the dancing — the talking part will bear fruit such as that of the coconut, which might be ready to be put into the processing chambers.

At the forum, therefore, the stakeholders are coming up with the “development of a business plan for the sector, and profitability studies to support commercially driven development and value addition; consolidation of a sector demand and supply plan, and the improvement of access to finance and promotion of innovative schemes that respond to the needs of the sector.”

But the people who have come from far and near are mostly there with very serious objectives, and so far have shown that they will be able to deliver. Therefore, they have added to their plan additional methods which should aid the business of cultivating coconut in an efficient manner.

So, the “improvement of research for availability and multiplication of right varieties for planting; promotion of better farming practices and extension services, to increase productivity and improve pest and disease management; improvement of the organization of coconut supplies through an industry alliance between stakeholders; and promotion of organization, planning, information flows and policy support” are other areas up for discussion and enactment.

If the key stakeholders have their way — and they really should — then the plan is that before full implementation, surveys of markets and current operations of NSP producers will commence with assistance from ITC. There would also be focus on development of pioneers and innovators (agripreneurs) into secure product value chains; the development of secure value chains for selected products, and the building of a multiplier effect model from work with pioneers.

Enterprises
Enterprises will include: Original Juices coconut water at Charity, Pomeroon; Roosters Farm – new coconut water factory at Land of Plenty, Essequibo Coast; Ideal Life Virgin coconut oil at Hampton Court, Essequibo Coast; HenvilFarms Coconut water at Marlborough, Pomeroon River; and also the Pomeroon Oil Mill at Charity, Essequibo Coast.

Improvement Solutions
Key areas of consideration will be to: improve cost savings; recycle coconut husk waste into peat and compost; corrected factory extension plans to avoid ineffective design & flow; improve productivity & efficiency; reduce oil settling time with extra sieving and use of wider surface area and shallower bins; reduce rework and error by eliminating unrolling labels for date code stamping; improve delivery; reorganise work area to improve material flow and reduce cycle time; transportation and motion; improve quality; improve control and cleanliness of coconut cutting and processing area; and also reduce exposure time and control environment for perishable coconut products.

These are some of the considerations discussed and agreed on so far in the effort to find solutions for the overall improvement of the coconut industry in Guyana, even as the Guyana Coconut Festival approaches its end.