Rs. 1450 Crore Coconut products exported in 2015-16

BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh on Friday addressing the farmers on World Coconut Day and National Award presentation ceremony in Bhubaneswar said that, India is a leading country in coconut production  in the world.

The Minister said that our annual coconut production is 2044 crore from 19.8 lakh hectare area and the productivity per hectare is 10345 coconuts. The contribution of coconut toountry’s GDP is about Rs. 20,000 crore. In 2015-16, from our country, coconut products of Rs. 1450 crore value have been exported.  Over one crore people in our country are dependent on coconut crop for their livelihood.

Coconut is a major crop of Orissa and here coconut is cultivated in 50,679 hectares and coconut production is worth 32.4 crore. In the state 6404 coconut per hectare is being produced. Five districts of Odisha, Puri, Ganjam. Cuttack, Nayagarh and Khurda produce more than 60 percent of the total coconut production in the state.

Minister also stressed that so far, 9720 coconut committees, 700 coconut producer federations and 61 coconut producer companies have been formed across the country. I hope that through these farmer groups, Coconut Development board’s plan would be operationalized and in processing, marketing and export of coconut products, farmers would hold their share.

The skill development program for coconut sector ‘Friends of Coconut Tree’ and ‘Neera Technician Training Program’ have been commendable efforts of the board. Under the scheme,  5,200 unemployed youths were trained to climb coconut trees and plant protection work and 2805 Neera technicians have been trained.

The Agriculture Minister said there is good news for coconut farmers, the minimum support price has been incresed from Rs. 5550 to Rs. 5950 for milling copra and from Rs. 5830 to Rs. 6240 for edible copra.
Moreover, the central government’s new foreign trade policy for 2015-20 is to promote the export of coconut products, exports value (FOB) of up to 5% as incentives are given. The export of coconut products is likely to rise in the future, because price is being extremely competitive. Awards were   given to 14 individuals and organizations.