Cooking With Coconut Oil

Thee shift in the consumption pattern to cheaper edible oils for cooking with coconut oil, especially palmolein, will pose a real threat to coconut oil, which is going to face a slump in demand leading to drop in prices during the current season, according to the officials of the Cochin Oil Merchants' Association.

Attributing the present shift in the consumption pattern to the higher prices of coconut oil as compared to other edible oils, they said that the import of edible oils under OGL would aggravate the downward trend in coconut oil. "Under the circumstances, lack of forward price discovery mechanisms would only ensure repeats of volatile price swings which were seen in the past," they pointed out.

The per capita consumption of edible oils in the State was estimated at seven kg per annum and at that rate, for a population of three crores, the annual demand could come to 2.1 mn tonnes. However, in recent years, about 50 per cent of the 1.80 mn tonnes of coconut oil produced in the State was being despatched to other States, making available only 90,000 tonnes for domestic consumption for edible and other purposes, they said.

In fact, Kerala produced 4.5 mn tonnes of copra and of this, 35 per cent was sent out of the State, leaving a balance of 2.9 mn tonnes of copra for crushing in the State. In the past, about 75 per cent of the coconut oil produced was moved out of the State because of the low domestic consumption as a result of the negative perception the people had about coconut oil, they said. However, there had been a change, of late, in this trend leading to an increase in the domestic consumption. But it would take some more time before the increased demand stabilised, they said. The availability of other edible oils, especially imported palmolein, at a much cheaper price had pushed the demand for coconut oil down, the officials pointed out.

According to Mr. K.A. Joseph and Mr. N. Ananthan, President and Secretary of the Cochin Oil Merchants' Association respectively, what had happened in the coconut oil market during the last one year "should be an eye-opener to the Government".

Last year, prices started rising in the last week of November and touched $65 per quintal on December 31. This trend was attributed mainly to short supply and not to an increased demand then, they said.