copra

He was a little old Frenchman, with soft kind eyes and a pleasant smile, half trader and half seaman, who owned a cutter in which he wandered boldly among the Paumotus and the Marquesas, taking out trade goods and bringing back copra, shell, and pearls.

The tender tips of the fallen palms were likewise eaten, while the thousands of coconuts were husked and split and sun-dried and smoke-cured into copra to be sold to the next passing trader.

He would buy a schooner - one of those yacht-like, coppered crafts that sailed like witches - and go trading copra and pearling among the islands.

He was his mother's supercargo, and his business was to comb all the Paumotus for the wealth of copra, shell, and pearls that they yielded up.

'While the prices of copra have collapsed in the world market, there is now a growing demand for dehusked whole mature coconuts and green coconuts for coco water,' he said.

While the coconut industry has been dominated by traditional coconut products, particularly by coconut oil and copra, there has already been a 10 percent decline in its share of total coconut exports, it added.

The FFF said coconut farmers are now in dire need of government support as they have incurred huge losses due to low copra prices in the past two years.

Luzara said distributing the funds to farmers would help them amid low copra prices, which stems from a global supply glut.

Latest data showed that mill gate prices of copra have declined to P12 to P17 per kilogram, still much lower than last year's level of about P26 to P30 per kilo.

New Delhi [India], Dec 28 ( ANI ): Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday approved a hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Copra (dried coconut kernels) by more than Rs 2000 per quintal for 2019 season.

Dayanghirang said income of coconut farmers and farm workers have been reduced by about half compared with six months ago after prices both of copra and whole nuts went down by half.