Rising prices of coconut, coconut oil disrupts budgets of small eateries, households

“Kozhukatta”, a rice ball filled with grated coconut and cane sugar, a popular snack, is missing from items that are for sale at the Janakeeya Hotel of Kudumbashree (Budgethotel) in Vyttila.

Long set up as an affordable snack from ordinary people, ironically enough, it is ironically until the premium competition, thanks to the rising price of coconut, which fluctuates more than £ 80 per kilogram.

For a budget hotel, the price of the snack turned out to be too good, either to its preference or that of the customers, despite the popularity. The rising price of cane sugar, which gives heavy competition to coconut, has not helped.

“Four coconuts are needed for making around 40 Kozhukattas from a kilogram of rice powder, and we sold them for 12 each. Because it turned out to be unattainable, we replaced it with ‘Pongappam,’ another snack on rice powder made of semolina, sugar, soft coconut water and relatively few of Jan Ratnakeya, said Omana.

The hotel also marginal reduced the number of coconuts, from five to four, for making side dishes for lunch, but returned as the taste turned out to be a victim. Moreover, the hotel was forced to switch to alternative oil for frying fish such as the price of coconut oil, which has risen beyond £ 400 per liter, premium. “We had no other alternative because the price of a 10-liter can of coconut oil rose to £ 4,500, which became exhausted in three days,” said Mrs. Ratnakaran.

The budget for households has also taken a hit because of the increasing prices of coconut and coconut oil. “Coconut and coconut oil are inevitable because they are eternal ingredients in almost all dishes we cook. Once used to dishes made in coconut oil, it is very difficult to replace it with other oil, both because of health and taste.

MG Ramakrishnan, former president of the Varappetty Service Cooperative Bank, attributed the rising prices of coconut and its products to several reasons. Coconut production, he said, has fallen by 20 to 25% in recent years for various reasons, including climate change. “The growing acceptance of coconut oil on the American market has led to increased exports there.

Mr. Ramakrishnan mentioned the rising demand for coconuts for Puja and related rituals in temples throughout the country as a different reason. Truckloads coconuts are transported from coconut-rich regions in the south, such as Kangayam in Tamil Nadu-Die plays a crucial role in determining the coconut prizes to places as far away as Jammu and Kashmir. This also contributed to the rise in coconut prices, he said.