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| Click to see the video! (in preparation) |
For the trendy and the wealthy, including celebrities such as Rihanna, Madonna or Matthew McConaughey, rarest coconut water extracted from the aromatic varieties of the nut, is the “in” drink and even a source of income.
Coconut water is being sold by luxury brands, at up to US$7 for 33 cl, about the same price as basic champagne.
There is no doubt that the coconut market is exploding.
The global coconut water market size was valued at USD 2 billion in 2016, USD 4.27 billion in 2019 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.1% from 2020 to 2027, to reach $14.3 Billion by 2027. Over the past few years, people worldwide are increasingly adopting several healthy and nutritional drinks to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
But there’s another worrying side to the story.
The coconut is one of 35 food crops listed in Annex 1 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and considered crucial to global food security.
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| Poster of Coconut varieties in French Polynesia click to see the whole, including horned coconut! |
Production and diversity of the species is under threat
Sadly, despite the incredible diversity of its uses, the coconut is endangered. One of the main challenges of coconut cultivation is the existence of lethal diseases and predators insects, which are rapidly expanding and killing millions of palms. These pandemics are known as lethal yellowing diseases - caused by phytoplasmas - and, for the insect, the rhinoceros beetle - Oryctes rhinoceros L.. and especially its new biotype CRB.
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The Phytoplasma diseases ravage countries in Africa (in Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire), and also in Asia (India), in America (Mexico, the Caribbean, Florida) and the Pacific Region (Papua New Guinea).
Coconut lethal yellowing disease in Côte d'Ivoire: state of emergency
Many coconut varieties that could be crucial for the future of agriculture are also disappearing because of the loss of traditional knowledge, rapid transformations of agricultural landscapes, climate change and westernisation. Due to the fragility of insular ecosystems, and the high genetic diversity of their coconut palms, the Pacific Region is probably the location where the losses are highest.
Research and farmers need more attention
Coconut is an important livelihood crop for more than 11 million farmers, most of whom are smallholders, cultivating palms on around 12 million hectares of land in at least 94 countries worldwide. The coconut palm is popularly known as the “Tree of Life” – all its parts are useful. Despite the upturn in the global market, many coconut farmers remain insufficiently organised, because of both their diversity and their dispersion.Investment in coconut research is incredibly scarce. The global budget presently spent for removing young coconuts from the coconut palms in public places and resorts - in Hawaii, Australia, and most large cities of tropical countries represents more than five times the overall budget devoted to research on the coconut palm in the world.
A yearly investment of about US$5 to US$8 million in public international research would be enough to address most of the challenges of coconut agriculture. Private companies benefiting from the market boom are still scarcely involved in this research funding. However, the budget required for research represents less than one per thousand of the turnover generated by the sale of coconut products!
This publication is a update shortened from "The end of coconut water? The world’s trendiest nut is under threat of species collapse", written by the same author for The conversation.com
R. Bourdeix section DIFF-007