My Blog
My name is
Dan Etherington
and I would like to share with you how a few years ago the
direction of my life changed radically after an experience in Africa.
In 1992 a village soap maker in Mozambique appealed to a visiting consultancy team to come up with
a method of producing oil directly from his community’s coconuts.
As an Agricultural Economist at the Australian National
University in Canberra and the team leader, I could not
forget the plea. If such a technology existed or
could be developed, it could radically transform the lives of poverty-stricken coconut farmers around the world.
Later that year, I learnt that the people of a remote Tuvalu island in the centre of the
south Pacific
had long ago discovered how to cold-press coconut oil
directly from sun-dried shredded coconut. However the copra trade and cheap imported vegetable oils had ‘killed’ this local technology.
Recognising its economic potential
for the islanders, I worked in collaboration with the CSIRO
and ANU colleagues to develop the fine-weather household
technique into an all-weather cottage-industry technology.
We call it
Direct
Micro Expelling™ (DME™). The
quality of the oil is stunning.
With
the encouragement and backing of some Christian friends, Dan set up Kokonut
Pacific Pty Ltd to further refine the technology and take it back to
the islands.
My coconut odyssey actually began much earlier.
The journey has been difficult at times but "breaking
chains" can
also be exciting and rewarding.
Read more
OUR MISSION
The Company’s goal is encapsulated in the motto: Empowering and bringing hope.
Kokonut Pacific
works to improve the well-being of the rural population of tropical countries through the production of premium grade coconut oil and
other
coconut products.
This objective is being achieved by revitalising the smallholder coconut industry through the use of modern technology and by working in
partnership
with local communities.
In most situations, people want to work and they
have plenty of nuts.
Now they have a way of turning those nuts into very pure, natural, virgin
oil within one hour of opening a coconut. Kokonut Pacific is working
hard with local firms, non-government organisations (NGOs) and Governments
to make sure that the right support systems are in place. The capacity
of remote communities to produce DME extra virgin coconut oil is often
far greater than the local market can absorb. For the dream of regular
employment to be realised, other markets have to be found. Because most
of the oil has to be exported, this requires organisation for quality
control, storage, transport, bulking up and finding buyers. In many cases,
these buyers are in other countries so the oil has to be carefully packed
and shipped overseas.
Niulife Coconut Oil is born
The
Niulife
coconut oil brand was established to
sell DME Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
on behalf of the island producers. Niulife reminds us of the New Life it brings
from the Tree
of life to impoverished island communities through our Fair Trade model, as
well as the New Life it gives to consumers
through the many
health benefits of
virgin coconut oil - a win/win for all. The name
reflects its South Pacific origin (niu, pronounced “new”,
means coconut in Polynesian). Your purchase of 
Niulife
products helps us continue our work with
rural
communities in the
South Pacific, and in particular,
the Solomon Islands.
Each year the production sites are certified organic by
NASAA.
Since our web-shop opened, we have diversified
into a full range of coconut-related products that help to
fund more development work for improving the lot of
smallholder coconut farmers. The on-line shop sells a range
of
coconut oil, coconut flour,
soap, lip balms,
books and
gadgets used with coconuts, with oil production and soap making. We
have also gathered a remarkable number of
testimonies
from oil users citing various
miracle cures, and even more from pet lovers in our
pet section.
Buy our Coconut Oil
Would you like to try some of the islands' produce and related items
Lip Balm, Coconut Flour Starter, Coconut Cures
Coconut Flour, Soap 5 pack, Coconut Oil Starter
See more products here
Posts
It's ver great nutrition for the hair. I hear from many people about its efficiency.
ReplyDeleteSamoa is also poised to take coconut diesel to another level, not only because fossil fuels are polluting and scarce and expensive, but because our farmers can help create a local market worth well over $SAT100M annually (i.e. electricity generation). Farmers will soon no longer have to find overseas markets for their products (with the likely chance that overseas competitors will undercut Pacific Island Countries or fabricate false notions to scuttle the source markets). Coconuts can soon become a food and energy crop, allowing value-adding of many other agricultural and forestry products because of the cheap availability of electricity and heat from such a renewable sources (especially biomass gasifiers). In parallel, Samoa is looking at biomass gasification technologies, co-generating power into the grid from such biomass sources as waste coconut husks, shells and even coconut tree trunks that are sawn for their high quality timber (few know that the top 2/3 of this senile tree trunk is discarded as waste - about one tonne of biomass or 500-1000kW). WOW. Why have these technologies taken so long to be piloted successfully in the Pacific and, more to the point, not been given the governmental and legislative support and incentives needed? We need more political support for renewable energy technologies in the Pacific and one site I have found very informtive of late has been www.bioenergy3.org which offers a wide array of technologies from all over the world - few trialed in the Pacific as yet. Finally, microfinancing these renewable energy technologies, and their ancillary businesses created, is the theme of a Renewable Energy and Microfinancing Workshop in Samoa 20-21 May 2010 organized by Foundation for Development Cooperation, REEEP and South Pacific Business Development that now caters for 5000 women in Samoa, loaning $SAT5M annually and has been a proven microfinancing success (with only 1% default on payments). At about 25% interest on your loan, this sounds way too high, but you get the ongoing business advice weekly for the rest of your business life, you get access to new markets and new technologies and proven business successes. This is the type of rural development that FDC and SPDB and others aspire to and I admire the efforts that Dan and others have taken. But somehow, this has not been enough to make the transition to renewed sustainability practices in the world of changing climates. We owe it to our children to act sensibly now and displace diesel at any cost. We have the resources, the know-how and the exact circumstances, especially in remote small island locations. No village needs be without electricty any longer - we have the affordable and alternate energy technology for you. With power, you'll have hospitals with refrigeration, schools with internet access and environmental awareness levels being raised over night. If health, education and environment sectors can benefit, so can Pacific Island cultures sadly being eroded by this energy ignorance. Energy-4-All Programme of FDC is a winner so please lend your support.
ReplyDelete