Coconut sector in Kerala-trends and challenges

The coconut economy in Kerala is plagued with challenges like reduction in area under cultivation, low productivity, increasing cost of cultivation, price volatility and unstable exports. This paper critically examines the challenges faced by the coconut sector in Kerala. The price behaviour of coconut and coconut products revealed that the prices are extremely volatile and the prices of coconut and copra are closely related with the price of the coconut oil. The analysis of coconut exports showed that the products with higher export instabilities were the products with higher shares in exports like activated carbon, fresh coconut, copra and coconut oil. It was also observed that the production of value-added products in coconut and its awareness were very low in the country. Some of the effective steps suggested were mechanisation of coconut farming, market intelligence and price forecasting schemes, revision of import duty structure of edible oils and awareness campaigns on various value-added products of coconut.