Chapter XIV 

 The Sterilisation of Copra 



HAVING produced a good marketable pro- 

 duct the planter has next to consider the 

 question of export. For many years this 

 presented a very knotty problem on account of the 

 deterioration suffered by the copra in transit, which 

 at times reached such proportions that it became 

 practically valueless before arrival at its destina- 

 tion. The expansion of the industry, however, 

 provided an extensive field for scientific research, 

 particularly in this branch, and in time a solution 

 was found for the difficulty. 



Many of the methods adopted for drying coco- 

 nuts or, in other words, preparing copra, have 

 been failures, because those who set out to solve 

 the problem studied it from the point of view of 

 the copra drier only, and without any inside know- 

 ledge of the difficulties which face the oil producer 

 and refiner. 



They were unaware of the fact that the two 

 great difficulties which cause the heavy expense 



