PETALING JAYA: A shortage of coconuts has persisted since last month but harvesters and traders are unruffled by the situation.
“Supply will return to normal in time,” said Mohd Rasul Abdullah, who harvests coconuts in Perak.
The trees, he said, would start to bear more fruits come April.
He said the current shortage is due to fewer nuts on a bunch.
“Usually, you can find 10 to 15 nuts on a bunch but this season, we have only four to five. This means that we have to harvest more hectares to get more nuts,” he said. “This tends to happen once every 15 years.”
However, he acknowledged that the situation would be problematic with Ramadan approaching.
“The fasting month is the best time for coconut harvesters in terms of business.
“This is because the demand for matured coconuts would be high during the fasting month as there will be a need for santan.
“Last Ramadan, I sold about 400,000 nuts and they were all local coconuts,” he said, comparing it to the usual 200,000 nuts that he could sell in a normal month.
He said coconut milk would be best if it came from matured coconuts.
“And to get the best matured coconuts, it is advisable to harvest them after 45 days. If it is done too early, it will not be of good quality.”
Malaysian coconuts, he said, are of top quality compared to imported ones as they are sold as soon as they are harvested.
“Imported coconuts are picked early and are left to mature in transit.”
A coconut trader in Kuala Terengganu, who only wants to be identified as Sharifah, said she would usually sell coconuts harvested from Besut.
But she would opt for Indonesian coconuts whenever there is a shortage.
She said prices of coconuts are always “up and down”.
“But for santan, we maintain it at RM10 per kg,” she said.
Abdul Razak, who is a coconut trader from Kelantan, said the shortage of matured coconuts is not worrying in view of the government’s plan to import from an additional source in Indonesia to cater to the demand during Ramadan.
He said the current shortage is described by farmers as “musim melawas”, which is a reference to the trees needing a “rest”.
As such, he said the trees would not produce many nuts per bunch this time.
