News

Kokonut Pacific sponsors Solomon Islands soccer team

 Kokonut Pacific is sponsoring the Solomon Islands Under-14 Indoor Soccer team. The tournament is being held in Canberra 8-13 January in the National Titles. They are seeded One and the hot favorites to win their age group as under 14’s. If you are in Canberra, come and support these youngsters!

 

Solomon Islands Update

 No doubt you will have heard plenty of distressing stories in recent times coming out of the Solomons. This really saddens us, given our relationship with the people there. Unfortunately it is the everyday people who lose out with the political problems so evident there. The motto of the Solomon Islands is “To lead is to serve”. Sadly this is not what we are seeing at the moment. Despite this not all is lost, and there are some good things still happening there. Below is one such story, recently printed in the Solomon Star that we have been a part of. Your ongoing support is greatly appreciated and needed now more than ever.

Coconut oil producers form an association

THE country’s first certified organic virgin coconut oil producers’ conference was held in Honiara at the end of August. The conference, attended by 35 producers from five islands in the country, discussed topics on quality control, money management, virgin coconut oil products, bio-fuel and staff management of this new and growing industry. Guest speakers at the conference were from the department of agriculture and livestock, department of planning and aid coordination and Kokonut Pacific Australia, which managed the international marketing of the oil. Following the conference the participants formed a Certified Organic Virgin Coconut Oil Producers Association (COVCOPA).

Kokonut Pacific Solomon Islands chief executive officer Colin Dyer said the formation of the association is a great “maturing of the industry”. “The formation of the Certified Organic Virgin Coconut Oil Producers Association shows the confidence that these rural producers have in their future,” Mr Dyer said.

Mr Dyer said producers need to stay together and focused on the markets already achieved while developing further opportunities in the domestic markets. “These village entrepreneurs are learning rapidly of the challenges of rural development and are taking positive steps to keep moving forward,” he said. The association is now under the care of an interim committee, who will seek formal registration and develop a draft constitution as soon as possible. The conference was funded by EU Micro Project. Participants hoped that the conference would become an annual event as they have gained so much insight and understanding from the guest speakers including Dr Dan from Kokonut Pacific Australia, as well as from each other. read the full Producer story here also see the biofuel page

This article is adapted form an article printed in the Solomon Star 5 September, 2006

Solomons Strikes Gold!


A Solomon Islands company has won first prize, it was announced at the Asia Pacific Forum for Environment and Development (APFED) which met in Adelaide last week.

The winner of the Ryutaro Hashimoto APFED Gold Award was Kokonut Pacific Solomon Islands Ltd for its project “Rehabilitating a rural economy with virgin coconut oil production”.


 

Mr Colin Dyer, CEO of Kokonut Pacific Solomon Islands (KPSI) Ltd (pictured front right) explained that KPSI was a joint venture with a Canberra-based company, Kokonut Pacific (Aust) Pty Ltd. Although only two years old, KPSI has installed 13 village-level virgin coconut oil (VCO) units in four Provinces. Because coconuts are produced throughout the year, the project has created permanent rural jobs for 400 men and women supporting about 3,200 people.

KPSI is helping ‘kick-start’ an ailing economy and has already exported 120 tons of Organically Certified VCO to markets in Australia, Europe and the USA. Sold as an up-market virgin edible oil in the health. Sold as an up-market virgin edible oil in the health food

 

KPSI Team Honiara with their APFED Award

Visit to the Solomon Islands August 2006

Kokonut Pacific founder and Managing Director Dr Dan Etherington, Production Manager Ian Gray and Financial Director Greg Wright spent a couple of weeks enjoying the heat and humidity of the tropics and dodging mosquitoes! They helped to revamp the facilities at the Honiara Headquarters in order to cater for increased oil sales, and they spent time in the villages inspecting equipment and hearing stories of  their joys and struggles. The commercial production of coconut oil is having a very positive impact on these communities. They still face many struggles, with limited communication, poor transport, inadequate schools and the lack of medical services. But it was inspiring to see the efforts of the last two years bearing fruit. As demand for the oil increases, more producers can come on stream, (there is a waiting list) thus assisting more of these island communities. Your support in purchasing our niulife extra virgin coconut oil is vital for the continued success of these farmers.

Dr Dan Etherington, Jimmy Kutu and Ian Gray in Maoa.

New Press for Fiji
After much planning, a new site in western Fiji is now bringing hope and smiles to the villagers. As with the Solomons, the people were very rich in coconut trees but had no way to access their own oil. Now they have the mechanism - a DME press which is empowering and benefiting the people who operate it as well as their whole village community. The picture on the left shows the red team at work while on the right Kanta, one of our trained project installers, presses oil.

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