Coconut production falls sharply in 5 yrs

Coconut production drastically declined over the last five years in the country resulting in a sharp rise in the price of the green coconut amid the dengue outbreak.

The production of coconut fell to 510,360 tonnes in 38,221 hectares of land in FY 2021-22 from 688,691 tonnes in 46,960 hectares of land in FY 2016-17, according to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE).

The price of green coconut increased to Tk 160-200 per piece in Dhaka due to huge demand amid the outbreak of dengue fever.

Dr. Mehedi Masood, project director of Year-Round Fruit Production for Nutrition Improvement under the DAE, said that cultivation of coconut is not increasing in line with the rise in population.

“Because of rising demand, the price of both green coconut and coconut increased sharply in the country,” he said, adding that the government should take proper steps to increase coconut production in the southern region as there are a lot of prospects to produce coconut in the area.

The massive influx of rugose spiraling whitefly (sap-feeding soft-bodied insects) has brought down coconut production since 2019, said the sources familiar with coconut production.

The rampage of the invasive alien insect pest and also the fall in farmers’ interest in coconut cultivation are considered as the reasons for production fall.

Analysing the DAE data, it is found that the production of coconut started to fall after FY 2019-20. The production of coconut was 663,851 tonnes in FY 2017-18, 650,932 in FY 2018-19, 653,520 tonnes in FY 2019-20, 519,458 tonnes in FY 2020-21 and 510,360 tonnes in FY 2021-22, according to the DAE data.

The highest was 88,000 tonnes of coconut produced in Bhola district in FY 2021-22 while the production in the district was 123,950 tonnes in FY 2016-17.

In Jhalakathi district, coconut production declined by 18,824 tonnes during the period and stands at 2,609 tonnes in FY 2021-22, in Patuakhali coconut production declined by 8,158 tonnes and stands at 3,362 tonnes in FY 2021-22, Bagerhat district produced 31,279 tonnes of coconut, Chattogram 26,000 tonnes, Rangamati 24,336 tonnes, and Bandarban produced 22,477 tonnes of coconut in FY 2021-22.

Raisul Islam, who is involved with coconut trading at Muslim Bazar in Mirpur 12 of Dhaka for the last four years, said, “The supply of green coconuts has decreased as production declined in the last couple of years. I used to bring 300 green coconuts each day at my shop at this time two years earlier. But this year, due to supply crunch, I sell 100 coconuts each day on average.”

He sold big-size green coconuts at Tk 180 per piece, and medium size at Tk 160 per piece. Nazim Uddin, who was selling brown coconut at Tk 160 per piece, said due to the huge demand for green coconut, supply of brown coconut has declined.

Foez Ahemd, a private company employee, said he bought two green coconuts at Tk 160 per piece for his dengue-affected son.

He said that the price of coconut was Tk 80-100 per piece six months earlier and that's why its price sharply increased within a short time.

Coconut is one of the cash crops, once upon a time almost every house in the country had more or less coconut trees. Based on this, many small-scale industries were developed in different districts.

However, the people involved with the coconut business are worried about declining production and acreage.

They believe that declining production and acreage is the key reason for the skyrocketing price of coconut in the country.