In short:
The boom-to-bust life cycle of coconut trees are causing headaches in communities across North Queensland and the Pacific.
In the Pacific, where coconut trees are considered “senile”, smallholder farmers are grappling with a need to replant while also receiving an income.
What’s next?
A project in the Pacific will work to create a supply chain that would support converting senile coconut trees into a wood-like material.
Coconut palms are an iconic symbol of tropical paradise, but the tree prized for its long, productive life is turning into a headache for the communities that have embraced it.
In Ingham, 110 kilometres north of Townsville, coconuts adorn the main street and nearby parks.
Six years ago, the council identified a problem that posed a significant legal liability risk.
“That was with coconuts falling down as people walked by,” Hinchinbrook Shire Mayor Ramon Jayo said.
“I for one would not be like to be in the Guinness Book of Records as the first shire where someone died because they were hit on the head with a coconut.”
To reduce the risk, the council established a “de-nutting” program, which removes coconuts from the trees before they begin to fall.
But it came at a significant cost.
“It was unsustainable, there was no way we could keep spending three, four or $500,000 on the de-nutting program,” Cr Jayo said.
“We now take out one in three coconuts.”
He said the council consulted widely before also deciding to remove some trees.
“I think we take out 200 trees a year but there’s still 2,000 left, or three or four [thousand],” he said.
‘Senile’ coconuts
On the picturesque shores of the Pacific islands, many communities would be envious of the productivity of Ingham’s trees.
There, once-productive plantations are going “senile” as they age, no longer producing fruit.
Carmel Pilotti is an associate scientist at The Pacific Community (SPC), an international organisation supporting sustainable development in the region.
“Most of the coconuts in the Pacific are very old — these palms were probably planted way back, at the turn of the century even,” Dr Pilotti said.
“Their production is very low and so they really need to be replaced to increase the production.”
But replacing the trees would result in a period of seven to 10 years where the younger trees were also not producing, leaving the many smallholder farmers who supply the high domestic consumption without an income.
“If the smallholders are not producing things like virgin coconut oil … then [coconuts are] obviously sold for drinking nuts, as drinking for the coconut water, and also for eating,” Dr Pilotti said.
“There’ll be a lag period between the time you cut the senile coconut palms to the time where the smallholders are able to get income again from the coconut tree.”
Coconut wood one possibility
In the meantime, Australian researchers are investigating other ways smallholder farmers could make money from senile coconuts, like converting the coconut stem into a wood-like product.
Registered architect and University of Tasmania Professor Greg Nolan worked on a project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
“The complication of making solid wood products or wood products out of coconut is that the coconut stem itself is very irregular,” Professor Nolan said.
The project found that coconut stems could be peeled instead of cut.
“You can take the stem and put a very sharp blade against it and you spin the stem around quite quickly and you peel off the wood, like a continuous sheet of paper, but the sheet of paper might be 3 millimetres thick, and that material that you peel off is called veneer,” he said.
Dr Pilotti said creating a veneer and other products from coconut wood could offer economic security and an incentive for farmers to replant.
“At least they’ll have a means of utilising the stems and possibly some form of income from that as well,” she said.
But bringing the technology and the engineered wood products to fruition would require further investment in the region.
“Someone’s got to agree to harvest their coconuts, someone’s got to agree to take that technology and make it into a factory or have a factory that will accept the coconuts, peel them, make a product which they’re then selling into the marketplace,” Professor Nolan said.
“Each of those things need to be in place before you actually have a supply chain occurring.
“The fact that there’s coconuts there and that there is a technical solution to peeling them is just the very basis of a supply chain.”
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