Preliminary Study on Status of Young-Coconut Fruit Production Destined to Fresh Market Consumption.

Abstract

This study was to find out information characterizing the status of young coconut fruit production for fresh market consumption. By means of questionnaires, data were collected from interviews amongst wholesalers, young coconut fruit dehuskers from 4 big wholesale markets of Thailand. These are Paklong-talad (Bangkok), Mahanak (Bangkok), See-mum-mueng (Prathumtanee) and Odion (Nalirnpathom). The questionnaire consisted of principal criteria, ie. Post harvest operations dehusking young coconut fruit, dehusking wage, fruit cost, wholesaling amount, dehusking capacity, popular variety of young coconut fruit, desired specifications of dehusking machine. Finding showed that young coconut fruit possessed physical components, juice : flesh : shell : husk =18 :8 :8 :68%, respectively. 47% of entire 47 shops from the 4 markets answered the questionnaires. Daily sale of the young coconut were 1,680 fruits of each shop in Paklong-talad, 1,117 fruits by average of each shop in Mahanak market, 2,344 fruits of each shop in See-mum-mueng market and 800 fruits for each dealer in Odion market in Nakornpatham. Manual dehusking capacity was 45.3 seconds/ fruit/ person by average. The most popular fruit variety is Namhom. Young coconut fruit before dehusking coasted from 2.50-4.00 baht while price after dehusking turned to range from 5.50 to 7.50 baht/fruit. Dehusking cost was about 0.50-0.60 baht/fruit. The wholesaler demanded a dehusking machine with the price of not more than 50,000 baht per unit.