Coconut palm, Cocos nucifera

The coconut palm plays a central role in the beliefs of many peoples. For example, the coconut is a widespread symbol of fertility. In many regions of South East Asia, Oceania and East Africa, the coconut palm, which is regarded as the tree of life, is considered to be the alter ego of humans, i.e. a plant with which they are connected by a particularly close bond of fate. Parents give their newborn child a coconut seedling, which they plant in the ground together with the placenta. And an Indian proverb says that the coconut tree has 999 uses and that the thousandth has not yet been found. In fact, all parts of the tree, from the root to the crown, are used in a variety of ways.

Up to forty fruits a year

The coconut palm is a monoecious plant. From a botanical point of view, the coconut is not a nut, but a drupe like a cherry or plum. Its fibrous shell is surrounded by a leathery outer pericarp and corresponds to the flesh of the fruit. The thin seed coat, the firm seed flesh it contains and the coconut water with the seedling form the kernel. Up to forty of the head-sized fruits ripen within less than a year in the crown of a palm tree that can grow up to thirty meters high. A large number of particularly high-yielding varieties that are largely resistant to diseases and tropical storms have been created through selection and cross-breeding.

The coconut palm grows particularly well in the tropical belt between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn around the equator up to an altitude of 1000 meters above sea level, although its yield decreases with increasing altitude. It requires high temperatures and rainfall all year round, but has low demands on soil fertility. A single coconut palm produces between 30 and 150 nuts a year, depending on its age, location and care. This corresponds to around ten to twenty kilos of copra, the dried fruit flesh from which coconut oil is pressed or grated coconut is produced.

The story of the coconut

A fossilised coconut found in the desert of northwest India led to the assumption that the coconut originated in western Gondwanaland, a large continent that once united what is now South America, Africa, Australia, India and Antarctica. When it broke apart 200 to 130 million years ago, the palm species developed on the coastal strips of the Tethys Sea. Coconuts able to remain viable for months, are thought to have spread by floating across the sea.

More than a thousand years ago, they already played an important role as a commodity. We know that in 912 AD, coconuts were brought from the Sunda Islands to the court of the Caliph of Mesopotamia. In the Middle Ages, pilgrims and Arab merchants brought the fruit to Europe. In the late 16th century, Portuguese colonial seafarers ensured that coconut goblets embedded in gold or silver came into the possession of the nobility and clergy. The economic benefits of the coconut palm for Europe were first recognized by the Spanish, who introduced its cultivation in the Philippines as early as the mid-18th century. About a hundred years later, the Dutch followed suit in Ceylon. Initially, the cultivation was aimed at the production of ship ropes with the fiber shells of the nuts, later the oil was also used for the production of soaps and candles. Towards the end of the 19th century, French chemists succeeded in using coconut oil to produce margarine as a vegetable substitute for butter. Subsequently, the land dedicated to coconut production rose increased in the producing countries and the export quantities of coconut oil and copra increased steadily.

Today, the coconut palm is increasingly competing with oil palms, sunflowers, rapeseed and soybeans as a source of oil for the cleaning and food industries. Many producing countries are now endeavoring to manufacture finished and semi-finished coconut-based products in their own countries and to process by-products such as wood from retired and aged palm trees, coconut water and stone shells.

According to the FAO, the area used for its cultivation more than doubled from 5.2 million hectares to around 12 million hectares between 1961 and 2014. Since then, the land area has stagnated or even declined slightly – albeit with a higher yield. In 2022, almost 62.5 million tons of coconuts were harvested worldwide, three quarters of which came from the three largest producers Indonesia, the Philippines and India. Other growing countries such as Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and Thailand follow far behind. However, the global cultivation area is likely to be significantly higher, as cultivation is dominated by small farmers in mixed use, e.g. agroforestry, and a large proportion of the harvest is consumed locally and is therefore not recorded in trade statistics. The largest importers of coconut oil are the EU countries, the USA and Malaysia.

Fruit, oil, tool, medicine – diverse uses

Traditionally, coconut oil is mainly used for frying and deep-frying in tropical regions. In some places, a ripe coconut can be so sugary that it is suitable for sweetening food, while in other regions it can also have a rather salty taste. The water from coconuts that are around eight months old is still very popular today as a refreshing drink. Alcohol or coconut vinegar is also produced from coconut water mixed with sugar in various processes. A specialty in the Philippines, India and Sri Lanka is the dessert ‘nata de coco’, a jelly-like food that is used pure in candied form or as the basis for desserts and canned drinks. However, as coconut oil is usually significantly more expensive than palm oil in these countries, palm oil consumption is increasing locally, while more and more coconut oil is being exported to wealthy foreign countries.

Due to its natural shape, the stone shell of the coconut was an ideal household vessel that was and is used in the tropics for food, drinks, lamp oil and much more. The hard shell is also suitable for making spoons, knives or sieves. The hollow coconut was used as a natural resonator for musical instruments (rattles, flutes). It was also used to make belts, necklaces and other jewelry. The nut was also used in traditional medicine, for example as ash to treat skin diseases, rheumatism, headaches and stomach pains. Since scientific proof was provided in the 1950s that coconut water is sterile, it has been used in Western medicine for infusions and as a remedy for dehydration in cases of persistent diarrhoea.

Last but not least, the stone shell of the coconut is an excellent fuel that produces a lot of heat but hardly any smoke. The charcoal obtained in powdered form used to be used as a toothpaste and dye in the tropics. In Western countries, it is used as barbecue charcoal, and in the form of activated charcoal it is a component of decolourising and deodorising agents. A powder made from the hard shell is a component of synthetic adhesives and numerous plastic articles – and recently the resistant stone material has been poured into concrete blocks in India on a trial basis.

Coconut oil – truly a superfood?

Recently, organisations and companies interested in and committed to development policy have been striving to promote the cultivation and sale of the renewable raw material coconut oil. This is promoted in the spirit of fair trade and sustainable, future-oriented development in order to contribute to improving the living conditions of the majority of smallholder producers in the tropical producing countries.

Nevertheless, similar to palm oil, coconut oil consists mainly of saturated fatty acids, with containing as much as 90 percent saturated fat. Saturated fatty acids are generally considered harmful to health because they lead to increased LDL cholesterol levels and are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Although the scientific community now takes a more nuanced view of this, the advertising of coconut as a supposed ‘superfood’ that is particularly healthy still lacks a solid scientific basis.

Many countries are not dependent on coconut oil (or palm oil) from the tropics, as there are enough domestic oil plants available – in Europe, for example, olive, rapeseed and sunflower. Domestic cultivation not only saves us from clearing rainforests, but also from questionable cultivation methods, land grabbing and very poor working conditions in the producing countries. The use of local oils also saves many thousands of kilometers of long transport routes around the globe.

Are coconut palms better than oil palms?

Oil or coconut palms are neither bad nor good. The problem lies in the enormous demand for vegetable oils and fats on the world market. The huge quantities required by the industry can be produced particularly cheaply on industrial monoculture plantations and under exploitative working conditions.

In contrast to oil palms, there has been no rapid and massive expansion in the area under coconut cultivation; in fact, the figures have stagnated over the last ten years. In general, there are not as many large coconut plantations and giant international corporations as there are for palm oil. Coconut palms are also more versatile, as all parts of the plant can be used. However, this does not mean that this always happens. Plantations produce enormous amounts of coconut waste, which is often not used at all, but also not composted properly.

Sources

Spectrum: The coconut palm – tree of a thousand possibilities. Link.
Rettet den Regenwald e.V.: Coconut oil – Not a good alternative to palm oil. Link.
WWF: Like Ice in the Sunshine: Vegetable oils and fats in ice cream. The example of coconut oil. Link.