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Coconut water bottling factory being readied

Jul 28, 2010 News

By Leonard Gildarie

The Hope Estate plantation, East Coast Demerara, is being upgraded with government looking for interested parties to run a coconut water bottling facility there.
Over the weekend, there were advertisements in the newspapers requesting interested parties to submit proposals that will see Guyana bottling its own coconut water.
Director of National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), Dr Oudho Homenauth, during a recent interview, disclosed that already there are some indications of interest.
Through the Ministry of Agriculture, a current structure on the East Coast Demerara plantation is being upgraded with more than $15M being spent to install equipment and other features.
“As you know, there are constraints to ensure that coconut water has a longer shelf life. We have many people freezing the water to export it. We have done the studies and we are moving to have it processed right here.”
In many cases, said Homenauth, after the frozen coconut water is exported, it is processed and placed in bottles with a different label.
Guyana, through the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), designed the facility with equipment for processing now being installed.
The official stressed that the small industries alone cannot handle the growing demand. And not only is the demand big on the local market, the potential for export is huge.
“We don’t want to run a project like this. For too long, there have been the criticisms about facilities. Government has provided that facilities. We are now asking the private sector to come onboard and manage it.”
Earlier this year, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, had disclosed that government was more inclined in the big soft drink companies, like DDL and Banks DIH, coming onboard.
Already, NARI has started a project to introduce 25,000 coconut seedlings by December, in an effort to resuscitate an industry that was on a steady decline.
“We are also in the process of establishing a nursery that will focus on revamping many of the abandoned estates.”
In its heyday, the Hope Estate was a thriving estate supplying a local cooking oil market that was insatiable. However, it went on a decline after medical claims that coconut oil was bad for the health.
Over the last few years, however, the dried coconut trade in Guyana has seen a virtual explosion in growth locally after pharmaceutical companies realized the benefits.
However, the coconut water, a delicacy that comes from the younger fruit, has proven a challenge with small farmers not taking the plunge into the processing business.
“Yes, we will be assisting in ensuring that there are adequate supplies to the facility,” Homenauth said.

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