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Arts & Crafts
Not a hard nut to crack
By S. Vydhianathan
THE COCONUT tree is the famed `karpaga virutsham' in Tamil but even this familiar tree has the kind of potential that all people do not know about.
Coconuts hold sway when it comes to Southern culinary styles though many by-products could be made from the nuts, which is still not known to many. In the absence of proper knowledge about uses of coconut, farmers do not get remunerative prices for their nuts.
The common perception is that a tender coconut can be used only as a beverage and if it matured, the kernel could be used only for cooking. The only value-added product known to many is coconut oil. But there are many products which can be produced from coconuts like coconut cream, coconut milk powder, desiccated coconut kernel chips, coconut concentrate and coconut soda. These products have good market potential.
That is the message of the Coconut Development Board, which recently launched various coconut products in Chennai, which not many knew of. Now technology is available for preservation and packaging tender coconut water and for manufacturing coconut water concentrate and coconut jam.
How many know that coconut soda not only quenches thirst but also provides an ideal alternative to ordinary soda for boosters. Now housewives have readymade grated coconut in the form of desiccated coconut for household preparations.
Processed and packed coconut cream is yet another ready-to-use product which can be used directly or diluted with water in various edible oil preparations. As it is available in tetra packs it can be preserved without refrigeration for months. Coconut chips which taste like any other common chips is good for munching. Coconut jaggery made from fresh sweet toddy is a good source of baker's yeast. Similarly coconut vinegar is yet another food product which goes well with all food preparations. It is not just the nut, even the husk and shell can be converted into value-added eco-friendly products. Even though husk is utilised for manufacturing coir and coir products its utilisation was only about 25 per cent at the national level.
Shell can be converted into shell powder, shell charcoal and shell handicrafts. Recently, some people in Orissa had made handicraft products with coconut shell which sold for Rs. 5000 a piece.
As the buzz word is eco-friendly products, coconut has immense potential and it is upto coconut farmers to make the best use of the nut, the Board says.
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