THE coconut palm has always been found in Guyana, especially on the coasts. The various peoples who settled here over the centuries used its fruit as food, and cultivated it in small patches throughout the coastlands.
The Freedmen who established villages after Emancipation grew coconut palms in their yards, and in the backdams, using them in ingenious ways. For example, they used coconuts widely in cooking dishes like metem-gee, or as a health drink, and coconuts were always present in every sickroom.

Its branches were used to make mats and brooms, its fibre was turned into pot scrubbers and used to fill mattresses, and even its shells were used in plant nurseries.
After Indentureship, many Indians became subsistence farmers, and coconuts became a necessary part of the household diet. A few of the more enterprising individuals founded small plantations where coconuts were produced commercially. They also added other uses of coconut to the local repertoire, such as the production of coconut oil, new recipes like “coconut choka”, and various confections. By the beginning of the 20th Century, coconuts were used by all, irrespective of their cultural background, and coconut oil became the main cooking oil in Guyana.

The main industrial producer of coconut oil was Wieting and Richter, a company founded by German immigrants, which enjoyed a monopoly for many decades. Small quantities of coconuts were also exported.
The coconut estates were all family-owned, and when the families died off or otherwise decided to quit their estates, the land was sold or leased to small farmers. The industry was, therefore, never able to manifest its full potential, but despite this, it was always the most important agricultural crop after sugar and rice.

Towards the end of the 20th Century, the reputation of coconut as a nutritious food and a medication grew exponentially in developed countries. It was sold as oil and in other forms, first in health shops and then in general supermarkets.
Coconut oil is now placed in the same category as olive oil, and is believed to help fend off Alzheimer’s Disease. This growing demand in developed countries presents Guyana with the opportunity for a profitable coconut export market.

The knowledge that coconut is a profitable crop, both in Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean, and has the potential for a rich export market has stimulated the expansion of acreage under coconut cultivation, and improvements in the quality of the nuts.
The Ministry of Agriculture, under the leadership of its proactive Minister, Hon. Zulfikar Mustapha, has been at the forefront of this development. The Ministry has been able to expand coconut acreage by several thousand acres, especially in the Pomeroon and on the East Coast Demerara, and is exploring export markets.

In this effort, Guyana has imported tens of thousands of Brazilian green dwarf coconuts, as well as the Costa Rican variety for distribution to farmers, which will revolutionise production.
In the words of Minister Mustapha, “Coconuts have tremendous value around the world; these coconuts we are importing have the potential to give 700 to 750 millilitres of water, which is about 400 millilitres more than the coconuts we presently produce.

It is a multi-variety, multi-purpose coconut that produces approximately 260 nuts per tree per year, compared to about 160 nuts per tree per year from the ones we currently have.”
This policy of developing the coconut industry as a profitable entity in itself dovetails with the policy of fending off the Dutch Disease, whereby countries allow the glitter of the oil industry and oil revenues to cause them to neglect other industries.