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ICC-ITC Webinar on Coconut Water, Production, Processing and Sustainable Coconut Water Value Chain

International Coconut Community (ICC) in collaboration with International Trade Centre (ITC) organized a webinar on "Coconut Water, Production, Processing and Sustainable Coconut Water Value Chain" on 10 December 2021. The webinar is part of the MoU executed between ICC and the ITC with the purpose to establish a framework of engagement and cooperation between ITC and the ICC to develop mechanisms for transferring technology relating to value-added coconut products under the project "Alliances for the Coconut Industry Development Expansion and Enhanced Support for the Caribbean". There were 91 participants who attended the webinar. This is the 5th and last of the series of training and webinar lined up. The other partner collaborator of this series is CARIFORUM, financed by the European Union, and implemented by ITC, CARDI, and important Alliances partners, ACP, and Coconut Industry Board.

The webinar started with the introductory remarks by Mr. Tristan Alvarez, Project Coordinator, CARDI and the moderator of the webinar. The first speaker Dr. Prima Luna, Researcher, Centre for Agricultural Post Harvest Research and Development (ICAPRD), Indonesia, presented an overview of coconut water processing, production, and sustainable value chain, wherein she described the industrial innovation tree, characteristic of coconut water, recent advances in various thermal, non-thermal processing and preservation methods, coconut water production method at SME, such as Ozonation method, Indonesian national standard for processed coconut water, and downstream process.

Mr. Krit Lajaroj, Managing Director, Tsus Febix Foodtech Co., Ltd., Thailand, presented the coconut water production and processing, which covered the topics of general production methods and different processing techniques in detail. Besides, market forecast; pulsed electric field, UV Pasteurization, and shelf-life comparison of coconut water.

The last speaker Dr. C. Anandharamakrishnan, Director, National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), India, explained the significance of coconut in human health, sustainable value chain of coconut water, processing by conventional and alternative non-thermal technologies (Ozonation, irradiation, carbonation, hurdle technologies) and preservation, marketing potential, regulation, and consumer trends.

Ms. Mridula Kottekate, Assistant Director, ICC, delivered the closing remarks. She mentioned that this is the last webinar of the series organized in association with International Trade Centre. On behalf of ICC, she thanked the international partners: ITC, European Union, CARIFORUM, CARDI, the Coconut Industry Board of Jamaica, and other alliances for supporting this webinar. She added although coconut water is the purest natural drink available on the planet, but one of the perishable products too. When we are planning to go into this business, we have to be very careful about its self-life. There are technologies available to retain its natural taste even after processing, which needs to be adopted. She hoped that this webinar would be helpful and beneficial for the participants to think about the process and going for a processing unit in the Caribbean, even on a small scale.

There was an in-depth discussion on the topics, and the speakers addressed the queries.

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