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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTriJIST 
[Jan. 1, ]90n. 
EXPORT OF PALM PRODUCE 
IN ISO'J : 
FROM 350 TO 400 MILLION COCONUTS 
KEPKLSLMTED IN THK EXP0KT8. 
We follow the practice of the last few 
years in drawing special attention to tlie 
total annual exports of the prodn cts 
of the coconut palm, in which an in- 
creasing number of colonists are becoming 
intex"ested, in addition to the thousands of 
Ceylonese of all classes who are em 
barked in the enterprise. The European 
merchant as manufacturer and buyer of 
coconut oil, has since early days of 13ritish 
I'nle, been connected with the coconut in- 
dustry. — the lirst cargo of coconut oil from 
Ceylon is said to have been taken to England 
by Capt. Boyd in 1820,— but European plan- 
ters of the palm have been comparatively few 
ancl far between, until of recent years. Un- 
fortunately, too, the earlier investors chiefly 
affected districts in the Northern and 
Eastern Provinces — probably because on the 
seaborde of these coconuts had long flourished 
— the distance of which from the capital 
added to the cost of transport to an extent 
which reduced profits disastrously. Freights 
have latterly have cheapened, and experience 
has taught during the past three or four 
decades, that proximity to the sea is not es- 
sential to the successful and profital)le culti- 
vation of the palm ; and we have European 
planters now interested in the product in 
all parts of the Island, from Point Pedro 
to Dondra Head, from Batticaloa and Trin- 
comalee to (!hilaw and Puttalam. A Ceylon- 
ese proprietor advertising in our columns, 
has made us acquainted with the fact that 
he had sold seed nuts for inland districts 
like Yatiyantof a, Kurunegala, Kadngannawa, 
Gampola, Matale, Pallegama, Kandy, Watte- 
gama, &c. ; while some of the seed-nuts 
have travelled as far as Lemesuriyagama in 
the Nuwara Eliyji. district ! In most cases, 
these coconuts "were to be planted with 
tea ; and European planters express them- 
selves very hopefully in regard to tiiis (to 
them) new product, as a safe second or third 
string to their agricultural bow. 
While last year saw a continuance of palm 
extensions, the out-turn of crop for 1899 
has not been particularly satisfactory. We 
expressed our fears for the yesir's crop after 
the severe drought of the first quarter ; and 
when a second drought was experienced in 
June-July, we ventured to indicate our con- 
viction that the year's out-turn would be 
short of that for 1898. So far as the Cham- 
ber of Commerce Export Tables are a test, 
that forecast has unhappily been justified. 
In Oil thei'e has been a falling-off from 
4.35,9.3.5 cwt. in 1898 and 109,600 in 1897 to 
400,979 ; of Copra 325,401 cwt. were exported, 
against .506,277 in 1898 ; in Desiccated Coco- 
nut, in which there has been steady pro- 
gression since the trade started in 1891 with 
1,416,3;^0 lb., there has been a slight increase 
from 13 million lb. to 13.|j million lb. ; Poonac 
shows a falling oif, in sympathy with Oil 
of which it is a bye-product, from 216,620 
cwt. to 174,786 cwt.; and so with coconuts in 
the "shell, a decrease is shown from 12,027,714 
nuts (and that figure has been exceeded 
at least twic(^) to 11,72:^,392. There has 
thus been a falling b.ick in every product 
of the Coconut palm, save in the Desiccated 
kernel, the increase in which, however, has 
not kept pace with that recorded in previous 
years. It is fair to say that this comparatively 
new industry of ten years' standing, has 
probably come to the end of its tether, ;ind 
that no appreciable increase on the figures 
just (luoted can be reasonably exjjected. 
Desiccated coconut is mainly used for con- 
fectionery ; and as a luxury the demand for 
it, is incapable of indefinite expansion. An- 
other point to be borne in mind in con- 
enction with the palm industry is that it 
ditfeis from others like tea, coffee, cacao, 
cimiamon, <^:c., of which practically the 
whole croj) is exported. Tlie local consunip* 
tion of coconuts is immense; and. in a pros- 
perous year like the last, cannot fall far short 
of the number represented by the exports. 
The exports of the products of the Coconut 
palm, therefore, represent the total outturn 
of crop in a far less degree than the exports of 
our other agricultural products; and to a great 
extent the exports are regidatod by the de- 
mand and l)y prices. Thus both the manu- 
facture and 'the export.ition of Oil, which is 
the chief produci, are regulated by the ruling 
pi'ices in London and America and the profits 
realisable from business. 
Dealing with tiie figures for 1898, which 
were about the laigest on. jiecord as a whole, 
we calculated that the exjiorts represented 
about 400 inilliou nuts as follows : — 
Nuts. 
435, 9.S3 cwt. Oil represent .. 217,960,503 
596,277 cwt. Cijpra ... 121,506,480 
1.3,040,534 lb. Desiccated ... 39,121,602 
Cocoiiuti* in .shell ... 12.027,714 
Total... 390,022,296 
The figures for last year, on the same 
system of computation, taking 50Q nuts as 
averaging 1 cwt. Oil, 240 nuts a cwt. of 
Copra and 3 nuts a lb. of Desiccated Kernel, 
the total works out as follows : — 
Nut.?, 
400,979 cwt. Oil .„ 200,489,500 
3;'5, 401 cwt. Copra ... 78,09^,240 
13,571,0841b. Desiccated ... 40,71.3,252 
Coconuts in shell ... 1],72.3..392 
Total... 331, 022, .384 
The difference in exports between the two 
years is thus represented by about 59 mil- 
lion nuts of the value, at R30 a thousand, 
of Rl,770,000. W^e have omitted reference 
in the above tables to Poonac, as it is the 
refuse after the extraction of the oil from 
the kernel, and we have credited oil with 
full 500 nuts. The poonac weighs half the 
oil ; and on that reckoning all the poonac 
obtained from the extraction of the oil sent 
away was not shipped— there being a deficit 
of about 25,000 cwt. That is not "matter for 
regret, as our stock and soil will be all 
the better for the retention in the island of 
all the poonac produced. The quantities of 
coir shipped were much the same as in 1898: 
but, of course, manufacture and shipments 
are guided by the demand. We might ship 
ten times the quantity we do, if only prices 
were more attractive. The Distribution of 
Coconut Products is also of interest, and we 
may have something to say of this in anothei: 
issue. 
