Coconut farmers in Kerala, hit by falling prices and pests, may find solace in the Maharashtra model of wine tourism.
KOCHI: Coconut farmers in Kerala, hit by falling prices and pests, may find solace in the Maharashtra model of wine tourism. A farmer in Kasargod district, who invented the technology to make wine from tender coconuts, thinks the invention would help his peers tide over the recurring crop crisis if the state government opens up its wine sector as in Maharashtra, where grape farmers are free to make and market wine.
Sebastian P Augustine, winner of Kerala government’s Kera Kesari Award, has patented his invention to make wine from tender coconut. The invention, which got India government patent in August 2007, is being processed by the patent offices in the European Union, the US, Canada, Indonesia and the Philippines. He is the first person to patent tender coconut wine anywhere in the world.
“I don’t use any artificial agents in the wine. It is the purest drink around as it does not even contain natural water as found in other wines. The drink is fermented from tender coconut kernel and tender coconut water,” he told a press meet in Kochi on Saturday. This drink, he claims, is 100% organic since there is no chance of contamination by pesticides. The wine has permissible levels of ethyl alcohol (12.25%) and acids as tested at the Central Food Technical Research Institute, Mysore.
He says the unique wine would be a boon to the coconut farmer if the government distinguishes wine from foreign liquor. “Now a farmer gets Rs2 or 3 per coconut. If the government lets us make wine, we can pay farmers’ collectives Rs10 per coconut,” he said.
He hopes that Kerala, with the abundance of tender coconuts and patented technology to brew it into a unique wine, can make the product its USP in the tourism sector. But the state, where wine-making is a household chore, doesn’t have any winery in the absence of sympathetic excise rules. Tender coconut harvesting doubles yields.
Augustine is a former deputy tehsildar. His organic farm in Beemanady in the eastern part of Kasargod district has been awarded the best coconut garden award by the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute in 2000.
s_don@dnaindia.net
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