Drinking cold fresh coconuts from street sellers around Samoa may soon be a thing of the past if the Minister of Agriculture gets his way.
Newsline Samoa reports Minister Lopao’o Natanielu Mua wants to stop the sale of green coconuts to allow plantations to bear enough produce to meet the growing demand for copra.
“All I want is one year to leave the coconuts untouched, give the trees time to recover from the heavy harvesting for fresh drinking coconuts,” said the minister.
He said that village councils have been approached for their “traditional authority” to help enforce a ban on green coconut sales.
The vendors though are not willing to give up their lucrative trade where their green nuts earn between $ST4 and $ST5 compared to 60 sene per matured nut.
“Our concern is food security for the villages and to do that we need the support of the traditional authority of the chiefs and orators,” said Lopao’o.
Banning the sale of green coconuts is nothing new and it has always ensure bumper crops after the bans were lifted.
He said the revival of the copra production industry is an important part of governments economic plans.
“We need nuts to mature, drop to the ground and regenerate as seedlings for us to re-plant. The bigger picture for us is revival of the coconut industry by giving it time to recover.”
