Coconut production inKeralahas come down to below 7,000 million nuts during the financial year 2020-21, compared to 8,452 million nuts of FY18, an RTI document from Kochi-headquartered coconut development board (CDB) revealed.

The production of coconut in Kerala during 2014-15 was 4,897 million nuts, and in 2015-16 it was 7,429 million nuts, which continued almost stable during 2016-17 with 7,449 million nuts. The production during 2018-19 slid down to 7,684 million nuts, from where it went further down to 6,980 million nuts in FY20. And further declined to 6,975 million nuts by 2020-21, CDB said in a reply to the RTI activist K Govindan Nampoothiry.

Over the four-year period (FY15 to FY18), Rs 1.8 crore was spent on training 2,637 neera technicians. The spending on training during 2014-15 was Rs 49.47 lakh, which grew to Rs 98.57 lakh in 2015-16. The next year, the spending declined to Rs 28.84 lakh and then declined further to Rs 3.72 lakh in 2017-18.

The export of coconut products (excluding coir items) during 2019-20 was valued at Rs 1,762 crore against Rs 2,045 crore of FY10. The coconut exports showed a decrease of 13.85% in terms of value during the financial year 2019-20. The major coconut products exported from India are activated carbon, fresh coconut and coconut oil in terms of value.