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Monday, July 11, 2011

The Coconut Sap Sugar

COCO TUBA


The sap is boiled to get rid of its water component. This is usually done under moderate heat with constant stirring. Once the liquid thickens at 115°C, the thickened sap is removed from the heat under continuous stirring. The thick liquid will then finally break down into granular form, and there is your coconut sugar. It is important to air-dry the sugar before packing it for the market.

Healthy

Since the sugar is natural and organic, it is a healthy source of sweetening. Although it sells at about P100/kilo, it is bound to change, following law of supply and demand, that a large supply of coconut toddy would definitely help decrease the price.

A profitability analysis of the technology has been promising. Using enterprise budgeting, a farmer can earn almost P600,000 net income in a year using coconut sap from 100 coconut trees.

It was seen during the profitability analysis that even if the price of the sugar is decreased by 10 to 20%, the farmers would still earn a profit. Further reduction of prices will decrease their profit by certain percentage, though.

But the analysis showed that if it is the coconut toddy supply that is reduced by 16%, the profit of the farmers will drop by 50%. If toddy supply further drops by 33%, the farmers will not have profit at all.

The profitability and sensitivity analysis of the coco-sugar enterprise showed both a promise and an opportunity. While a healthy sweetening can now be made available to sweet-tooths everywhere, the sensitivity of the economic viability of coco-sugar to market forces have opened opportunities for coconut farmers to increase their income by tapping their trees for that all-important toddy.


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