Coconut prices to consumers soar
View(s):Coconut prices to consumers are soaring and three times that of the farmgate price.
While the farmgate price is Rs. 23 per nut, prices on the street is around Rs.68-69 per nut, a coconut producer said adding that the middle-man was fleecing the consumer.
The industry is also facing a crisis in the form of spurious imports of palm oil in the form of palm olien which is then mixed with coconut oil and sold as pure coconut oil.
“This is a serious problem we are facing,” he said.
In a related development the dessicated coconut exports have also dropped due to less demand from the confectionary industry owing to less sugar consumption. Last year Sri Lanka’s coconut exports fell to 466 million nuts from 765 million in 2016.