Each year, 2 September is celebrated as World Coconut Day (WCD), to commemorate the formation of the International Coconut Community (ICC) in 1969. The WCD 2021 Celebration coincided with the concluding day of the four-day virtual 49th International COCOTECH Conference and Exhibition, 30 August-2 Sept 2021. The theme for WCD 2021 is: “Coconut: Promoting Health, Creativity, and Resilience Amid and Beyond COVID-9 Pandemic”. To celebrate the WCD and to promote all coconut-related activities which sustain the lives of millions of small-scale farmers as well as those engaged in the production, processing, and marketing of coconut products amid the COVID-19 Pandemic, the ICC Secretariat, in collaboration with ICC member countries and other international organizations, hold programs and activities.
This year ICC Secretariat conducted different competitions to commemorate the day. The competitions included videography, writing, photography, and social media post competitions. Enthusiastic participants from coconut stakeholders in the ICC member countries participated and submitted their creative and inspiring entries to the competition. The entries were received from Ghana, Guyana, Indonesia, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Philippines. The various competitions organized by ICC Secretariat encouraged millennials and older generations to take part in sustaining the sector and to promote creativity amid the Covid-19 pandemic and elevate the positive attributes of coconut products.
Dr. Jelfina C. Alouw , Executive Director, delivered the introductory remarks. She said that there are things we must do to develop a much better preparedness and response plan, and to create the space to be more creative and resilient, explore areas to be more supportive to coconut farmers, vulnerable communities, and countries in addressing challenges. Many countries have celebrated World Coconut Day by organizing various festivals, capacity building, webinars, and other programs to recognize and appreciate the benefit experienced by communities and countries due to coconut and the industries. Countries like the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Solomon Island, Kiribati, Samoa, and PNG, observed this day to recognize coconut in their national program that they called “Coconut Week” in the Philippines, “Hari Kelapa Dunia” in Indonesia, and WCD in India and other countries.
His Excellency Hon. Minister John Simon, M.P., Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Papua New Guinea, and ICC Chairman, delivered the opening remarks. He said that the main objective of celebrating Coconut Day was to create awareness across the world about the importance of coconut and its many benefits to human life. Despite the covid pandemic, the community continues to celebrate the day. The theme highlights the significant roles of coconut for small farmers and global consumers. The wide range of coconut products underlined the importance of coconut in our culture and society, to fulfill the continuously increasing global demand. Further strategies within coconut stakeholders are needed to increase production and meet this growing demand. Collaboration is also needed to support value addition, processing, and marketing of high-value coconut products, as well as structured effort in replanting to address senility and low productivity, to meet the increasing global market demand, and to improve coconut farmer’s livelihood. He encouraged all the coconut stakeholders to consider the development drive specially to help marginalized coconut farmers in improving their livelihoods.
The competition winners were announced by Mr. Vincent B. Johnson, ICC Cogent Coordinator. He announced the first, second, and third winners of the Social Media Post, Writing, Photography, and Videography Competition. Also, being announced the favorite winners of photography and videography were determined by the number of “likes” in the ICC’s social media accounts. Thousands of voters were involved in the process. The program concluded with playing the award-winning video.