Nov 08, 2002
Coconut water goes modern
India has produced coconuts for 3000 years and the tree is cultivated in 18 states which together produce 13 billion nuts annually!
It’s drink seduces the visitor from overseas and now a small Indian company’s success has attracted the attention of a US multinational, Tropicana. It wants to market it as a ‘sports drink’.
P P Abdul Kutty, Managing Director of Miracle Food Processors International Ltd, Perinthalmanna, Malappuram, Kerala adapted a German technology to make a concentrate out of coconut water. His company now operates vending machines in Indian metros that dilute the concentrate and deliver the right coconut water experience. It also exports to Gulf countries. It has a handy Rs.1.5 crore annual turn-over producing 300 tonnes of concentrate. It converts the remaining coconut flesh into jams.
Tropicana wants --in true American style-- 6000 tonnes annually! Kutty says that would need a million nuts to crack. He is mulling over replicating his palnts all over the Indian peninsula.
Goes to show what scope there is for the Indian food processing industry. The Coconut Board is planning to commission research into health benefits of conut water. The Tropicana’s isn’t waiting for that before markets a new ‘sports-drink’: it probably knows that during World War II, Allied wounded in Sri Lanka were given infusions of coconut water when manufactured fluids ran short.