Raymond Trotz believes that next week’s Coconut Festival to be held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre is just the sort of impetus which the local industry needs in its pursuit of a rejuvenation.
Guyana is currently benefiting from a decidedly modest share of a multibillion-dollar global coconut industry, buoyed in recent years by a widespread focus on linkages between the coconut and its by-products and good health.
The rise of the global coconut industry has been nothing short of meteoric. In 2008-2009 the size of the industry was measured at around 300 metric tonnes. By 2014 it had grown to around 11,000 metric tonnes. It is estimated that the global coconut water industry alone will be worth around US$4 billion by 2019.