The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Kinfra to set up Coconut Park

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Friday, Mar 21, 2008
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Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Kinfra to set up Coconut Park

R. Ramabhadran Pillai

A public-private enterprise in Thrissur

Value addition zone with state-of-the-art processing facilities
Infrastructure for procurement in identified clusters

KOCHI: Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA), in association with Coconut Development Board (CDB), is planning to set up a Coconut Park in Thrissur district. It is intended to provide a platform to bring farmers, processors and retailers together and link agricultural production to the market so as to ensure maximisation of value addition, minimisation of wastages and improvement of farmers’ income.

The move comes at a time when the coconut farming sector is facing a host of problems such as un-remunerative prices, competition from other edible oils, diseases affecting palms and low yield. Value addition and effective marketing are expected to provide support to the sagging fortunes of the sector. Though some initiatives have been taken to instil confidence in farmers, concerted attempts are required to give a thrust to the coconut farming community as well as the coconut-based industry.

Unstable markets

Lack of consistency in prices and unstable markets have been hampering the prospects of the sector which still depends mainly on domestic use as well as processing by traditional methods.

Though experts have stressed the importance of replacing old palms having low yield with high-yielding varieties, the rejuvenation process has not attained momentum.

Despite several handicaps, the coconut sector remains a highly potential one in the commercial arena. Several avenues for value addition have been identified, but initiatives in these areas have yet to get desired results.

New markets

The development of a food park exclusively for coconut would facilitate in a major way entrepreneurial initiatives for processing of coconuts into value-added products and opening up of new markets, according to official sources.

The proposed project, to be developed in the public-private participation mode, would be a well-defined processing and value addition zone containing state-of-the-art processing facilities with support infrastructure and well-established supply chain. The primary objective of the project is to facilitate establishment of integrated value chain, with processing facilities, supported by requisite forward and backward linkages.

The project provides for creating infrastructure for farm-level procurement in identified clusters, processing of products, comprising both edible and non-edible sectors, centralised infrastructure to take care of processing activities which require cutting edge technologies, and testing facilities besides the basic infrastructure for water supply, power, environmental production systems and communication.

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