CDA steps into resurrect coconut oil industry

COCONUT OIL: In Sri Lanka we had in operation about 50-60 medium and large scale coconut oil mills until early 80s and we manufactured about 130,000 tonnes of coconut oil per annum.

In early days our local vegetable oil consumption was entirely met by locally manufactured coconut oil, Coconut Development Authority states.

However in 2005 the survival of this industry was limited to 20,000 - 25,000 tonnes of oil extracted mainly from baby expellers and few medium and large scale mills. Today most people depend heavily on imported palm oil and other vegetable oils for their daily requirements.

We import about 200,000 tonnes of various kinds of oils for local consumption with the expense of large sum of foreign exchange and often marketed under the name of coconut oil after adulteration.

Although the health benefits derived from coconut oil is unrivalled and unmatchable with other vegetable oils. Facts about coconut oil were concealed by financial power and unethical propaganda by western countries due to their vested interest in their own products.

After the second world war there were many poly unsaturated oils promoted strongly in the world market by developed countries. Especially soya oil by USA and Sunflower and Rape seed oil by Europe.

As a result public opinion totally turned against tropical saturated oils especially against coconut oil. Saturated fats were blamed for cholesterol and coronary heart diseases without any basic medical evidences.

As a result local coconut oil industry experienced a severe set back until 2005. In addition boom of the palm oil industry in Malaysia and Indonesia also attributed towards the downfall of this industry.

Meanwhile the import of cheaper substitute vegetable oils by local traders lead to adulteration of vegetable oils with coconut oil. As a result the quality of coconut oil found in the local market deteriorated substantially, resulting in decrease in consumption of coconut oil.

Even during the years of bumper coconut corps, the coconut oil industry remained inactive without appropriate policy support. This scenario affected the coconut growers very badly and coconut cultivation became an unviable venture.