Why Cocopeat?

Why Cocopeat?

Coco peat or Coir Pith or Coir Dust is the spongy tissue found in the mesocarp (husk) of the coconut fruit. Those who have experience in dehusking coconuts can remember it as the brown particles that fall down while dehusking or removing the fibres from a coconut.

The term cocopeat was first proposed by E.P.Hume, who while working at the famed Federal Experiment Station (now Tropical Agriculture Research Station) in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, wrote for the journal 'Economic Botany', an article titled 'Coir Dust or Cocopeat - a By-product of the Coconut' in 1949. He gave the name as he considered the name 'dust' to be implying an undesirable quality for this alternative to horticultural peat. He was the first to experiment cocopeat for different horticultural applications such as mulching, seed germination and rooting of plant cuttings. He even showed that plants grown on water leached from the cocopeat grew better than plants that grew from tap water.

A typical coir defibring factory will produce the equivalent of 1-2 tonnes of cocopeat everyday. In and near the town of Pollachi alone, where our factory is situated, it is estimated that there are around 500 coir defibring factories. The coir waste once used to be dumped in open spaces and set afire. Then when cocopeat factories initially came up, they obtained the coir waste free of cost. Now screened coir dust from the coir defibring factories are sold sometimes at over Rs. 3000 per tractor load. In fact, coir defibring factories sell the cocopeat according to the changing price of coconut husk, so that their profitability is not affected by unstable coconut husk prices.

Demand for cocopeat has only increased. Much of the processed cocopeat is exported, especially to South Korea, China, Australia, Netherlands, USA, UK, Germany, Russia, Spain, France, Kenya and UAE. A market for cocopeat is slowly developing in North India. Unfortunately, there is little awareness and use in the cocopeat producing areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where the product is seen as a money spinner than as a valuable resource.