Sri Lanka’s king coconut beverage in export demand
Sri Lanka’s king coconuts are finding new markets as they enter Europe as the demand from health conscious customers is on the rise for this beverage unique to tropical countries.
King coconut with cinnamon.
Expo Aurganica Pvt Ltd, which markets local king coconut as a healthy beverage to Germany, is now increasing its supply as demand increases and the company now exports over 12,500 litres in every shipment, its Managing Director and CEO Nihal Perera said in an interview with the Business Times on Tuesday.
He noted that the Aurganica King Coconut water processes the product at their factory that has a capacity for 5000 – 10,000 nuts per day.
In 2004 following an experiment that he had carried out while still working for Williams Confectionary and Ceylon Biscuits, they had found out that Sri Lanka was not known for king coconut water and since Kerala had only a limited quantity of the red colour product, Sri Lanka too had the opportunity to sell this water.
Green Coco, the German buyer visited Aurganica once it was set up and took some samples and later asked to supply them with the beverage but to ensure that standards were maintained and that the product was produced without the use of fertiliser else it could not be sold as an organic product.
Having started out in Germany since 2015 the company has also been exporting to the US as well and next month following a visit to Dubai, Mr. Perera said they intend on entering the West Asian market as well.
The company has also obtained the required specific certification to export the product to the UK market as well, he said.
In a bid to ensure that standards were maintained in the production of the crop the company has identified certain growers from Homagama, Ingiriya and Wadduwa to ensure that they obtain the best variety of fruit for processing.
Moreover, the Aurganica also has some local buyers who label it under their brand and market it elsewhere, he noted.
Mr. Perera would be joining hands with an investor in upgrading the existing plant as they continue to cater to the high demand for undiluted organic king coconut water products without additives.
The company has already acquired ISO 22000-2005, organic certification for the US and EU markets, FDA food facility registration, Export Development Board registration and the Coconut Development Authority registration that execute orders to German and US markets.
Aurganica by now has made Rs.130 million worth of foreign exchange earnings through exports upto 2016. Mr. Perera can be contacted on nihal.aurganica@gmail.com