The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Region 11 sees high potential for coconut water from mature nuts to reach the export market.
PCA regional director Lornito Orillaneda took the good news from President Benigno Aquino about the $15 million investment potential on “buko juice” that foreign markets are eyeing to import from the Philippines.
“We have so much mature coconut water which is usually wasted. Instead of throwing it away, we are now teaching farmers on how to process this coco water,” Orillaneda said.
Thirty percent of the coconut content is water, thus, PCA constantly tells farmers to make utilize this part of the coconut.
Buko juice is the coco water sourced from a young coconut. However, bulk of the coconut supply is mature nuts. This gives hope to coco farmers as they can now also make money out of the mature nuts.
PCA shares that a simple process of pasteurization is required to remove the oily portion of the mature coco water and turn it into the popular “buko juice” or the coco water from the young nut.
Studies show that coco water is actually more nutritious than whole milk because it has less fat and doesn’t contain cholesterol. Coco water is also better than processed baby milk since it contains Lauric Acid which is present in mother’s milk. It contains natural sugar, salt, and vitamins.
Orillaneda hails the investment opportunity brought by President Aquino as this will further encourage coco farmers not just to rely on the copra product but also take advantage of the many other uses of the coconut. [PIA 11/Mai Gevera-Macapagat]
