Stock up while you can.
These days coconuts are everywhere. People are using coconut oil to cook with, using coconut milk as a substitute to cow’s milk, drinking coconut water and even eating coconut crisps.
It’s no surprise then that there could be a shortage on the way if we keep overusing the fruit.
According to Bloomberg, along with overusage, the Carribean could suffer a shortage for a number of reasons including, storms, droughts and the Lethal Yellowing disease, spread by insects. Since 1994, Caribbean coconut plantations have shrunk by about 17%.
Compton Paul, from Trinidad-based Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute, said, “It’s fair to say that at this pace, the Caribbean is running out of coconuts.”
Production in Nagua, on the Dominican Republic’s north coast, has dropped by 60% in two decades. One local farmer, Dioni Siri, says that there aren’t enough quality coconuts being grown and so it leads to the current selection being picked too soon and becoming unusable.
Furthermore, prices are continuing to rise for locals who wish to buy a fresh coconut to drink from, an issue which has occurred in the past with other items of food. Some farmers who grow coffee beans and quinoa are now unable to afford to buy their own stock due to price inflation.
Another worrying revelation from this news is that some of the coconut water we buy in the supermarkets are now found to be fake and contains water and chemicals rather than authentic coconut water.
The only solution is for farmers to plant more coconuts but it’s not guaranteed to yield more coconuts because of outside factors such weather conditions and diseases which are spreading.
