Coconut industrialists urge shift to processed products for export revenue growth

President of the Coconut Milk Manufacturers’ Association, Randeewa Malalasooriya says that the nation’s coconut industry has the potential to bring in USD 2.5 billion as revenue up from the current industry average of USD 850 million.

Speaking to Ada Derana, Malalasooriya further stated that the country must improve the annual coconut production to 4.5 billion nuts in the long term while also focusing on the import of low value coconut products to produce value added coconut products for re-export purposes. 

He also said that Sri Lanka must decrease the wastage of fresh coconut by adopting processed coconut food.

Malalasooriya, who stated that 50% of coconut industry revenue in Sri Lanka comes from kernel products, noted that Sri Lanka is the 4th largest coconut manufacturer in the world.

“It [the industry] has a huge potential to earn at least USD 2.5 billion or above, if we can get the right practices in place. If you look at world market, Sri Lanka still have a good opportunity in coconut sector.”

“As the industrialists, we strongly believe that we can in short-term take the revenue up to USD 1.5 billion and 2.5 billion in the long run. This industry has a huge potential.”

Furthermore, he noted: “But to go there, we need minimum of 4.5 billion nuts. One of the short term strategies is to bring some of the raw materials from other countries like Indonesia or Philippines. That way, you can bring fresh nuts or low value added products, add value and then export.”

Malalasooriya expressed that Sri Lanka still has too lower yield per tree, emphasizing the need to increase this efficiency.

“On the other hand, we still consume so much coconut in a fresh format. So we need to look at processed products to stop this wastage”, he added.