The King Coconut plant, which is a plant unique to Sri Lanka, is currently becoming a major plant that earns dollars for our country.
So far, not much attention has been paid to the King Coconut of this country as well as in the world, but now there is a very high demand for King Coconut in the United Arab Emirates. 200 containers of Sweet Coconut (King Coconut) are being exported to the country per month.
However, the Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries took steps today (14) to cultivate king coconut, which has been cultivated as a garden crop and not as a plantation crop, for the first time as a crop aimed at export.
Accordingly, the development of Murutawela upper area as Sri Lanka’s first king coconut cultivation village was started under the patronage of the Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industry, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera.
As a pilot project, first 1500king coconut plants will be planted in the home gardens of this area. For that purpose, the distribution of high quality king coconut plants was done by the minister today. It is planned to provide 10 seedlings per garden.
The King Coconut exported from this country to the United Arab Emirates is sold at a high price of 2500 rupees in the country’s coastal region. Currently, the demand for oranges in the country has increased three times.
Due to the establishment of a regulatory system for the export of king coconut with the intervention of the Coconut Development Authority, king coconut in the United Arab Emirates is currently receiving an amount of 0.8 dollars (approximately 296 rupees) at the country’s port.
About 252,000 king coconuts are exported from this country to the United Arab Emirates per week. Last year (2022) an income of two billion rupees was earned by exporting king coconut, and this year (2023) the expected income is six billion rupees.
Meanwhile, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera mentioned that all measures are being taken to cultivate king coconut as a plantation crop. Many countries in the world have tried to grow king coconut, but all those efforts have failed. The tastiest king coconut in the world is the Sri Lankan king coconut. Therefore, the minister mentioned that steps will be taken to make Sri Lankan king coconut popular in the world with the Sri Lanka Sweet Coconut brand, and the Coconut Development Board and the Coconut Development Authority have been given the necessary arrangements for that.
