Fiji has big plans for coconuts, with researchers and engineers across the Pacific working to capitalise on its abundance of mature coconut palms to create high-value engineered wood products – a bold plan to incentivise farmers to remove disease-invested coconuts, protecting the very future of coconuts in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project is 17 years in the making, with Moana Bergmaier-Masau, an Engineer from the international development organisation SPC, telling ABC Science’s Carl Smith yesterday that researchers are developing new products for the palms-riddled coconut rhinoceros beetle, which threatens the long-term survival of healthy coconut palms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the FAO, 50-60% of Fijian coconut trees are overaged or senile with Ms Bergmaier-Masau telling Mr Smith that many of Fiji’s coconut groves are entering less productive phases simultaneously. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This is thanks to an old boom for coconut oil and copra,” Ms Bergmaier-Masau said, adding that a massive surge of coconut trees\u00a0were planted\u00a0during the copper boom and again after the First World War. “There was a huge surge in coconut oil at that timber before canola took over, and soybean and palm oil took over after that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n