Coconut Sugar - June 2008
Cocovida Coconut Sugar will be available from our distributors in the UK, Germany, France and Singapore, this month. You will be amazed to learn that the labels have been designed, and just need to be printed. (Anybody who has read my posts about Albert, our printer, and his trusty assistant Jeff, will understand that I now have my fingers permanently crossed.)
Cocovida Coconut Sugar is produced by Cocovida Phils. Corp., in Dolores, Eastern Samar. It is our own product; it is not bought from another manufacturer. We have worked extremely hard to be able to supply our distributors, and we are giving them a great product.
Our sugar is not produced from the sap of dwarf or hybrid trees, so our guys have to work that little bit harder to collect it. However, the sap produces a really excellent natural sweetener, as anybody who has tried it will attest.
Our sincere thanks go to Erlene Manohar and Chivit Gulle-Navalles, who gave up their own time, to travel to Dolores and teach our guys the production technique; as well as holding seminars for the local farmers.
April 11th 2008
Yet again.....Fairtrade
I am back to the topic of Fairtrade again, because I didn't want people to think we had let it go, and just forgotten about it.
I have posted about Fairtrade on several occasions, usually in rant mode. I find it incomprehensible, that the people charged with setting a Fairtrade standard for coconuts in South East Asia, move even slower than our printer Albert and his trusty assistant Jeff. Apparently, there will be a standard set, but is needs to be discussed for about a year, before anybody can move out from behind their desk. I know it is a very complex task, there are a tremendous number of variables to take into consideration, but if your mandate is to try and help the poorest farmers in developing nations; it would make sense to show a little urgency.
I am not going to reproduce my previous posts, as that would serve little purpose. However, there was a comment after one of the posts, in which a lady said, that if we found it difficult to find help, we would have to go it alone. I certainly wouldn't say we have been alone in voicing our concerns about Fairtrade in The Philippines, there are undoubtedly other advocates. There are several NGOs, that claim to be leading the campaign for Fairtrade certification in The Philippines, but, to be honest, they appear to be having very little effect. (It would probably help if their office answered the telephone occasionally, and replied to emails)
We got lucky this week, and made contact with a foundation which seems to have exactly the same philosophy and aspirations that we do. There is a very good chance, with their help, that we can really move forward now. I have always said that we will try our best to keep the promises we made when I started this blog. When I make posts that are passionate and outspoken about Fairtrade, I put us in a situation where we will look complete idiots and hypocrites if we don't achieve anything. So, we have a little more pressure on us; we can take it..........Well Mel can.......I've got problems with my knees........It goes back to when I was hopping in and out of the boat, carrying a bag of coconuts. I shouldn't be doing that at my age.
Please keep an eye on this blog. I hope to have some very good news on Fairtrade quite soon.
March 20th 2008
Mel and I are extremely happy, and very proud, to announce the launch of our new French website. http://www.cocovida.fr/
Frédéric and Julie Debrot have become our latest distributors, and we are delighted to have them as members of the "Cocovida family". Their website is not completely finished yet, but it still looks much better than our site, cocovida.com, which itself, is in the middle of an upgrade. Cocovida France will be selling all the products available on our other sites, and several new products that will be available very soon.
We work with some incredible people, Frédéric and Julie are no exceptions. They have already built their own successful businesses in totally different fields, but want to put their business knowledge to great use, in the world of natural health and beauty. What better way, than to work with Cocovida, producers of the world's finest raw virgin coconut oil.......and coconut sugar.
I don't know how many people in France read this blog, (probably not more than a few million), but if you are looking to purchase a great, cold-processed, raw VCO, you could do a lot worse than to click on the link above. I have also added a link at the side of the page, which shows all our international distributors. They are all great people, please don't be shy to contact them with any questions.
Before I finish this post, I would just like to wish everyone a very happy Easter.
Friday, February 22, 2008
There are hundreds of jobs I wouldn't like to do; or be able to do, come to that. Close to the top of the list on both counts, is collecting mature coconuts for Cocovida Raw Virgin Coconut Oil. Quite simply, there is no way I could climb a coconut tree, and if I could, I wouldn't want to be searching for a special type of nut, once I got to the top. Apart from the fact that I don't like heights, there is often a snake, or a spider, hiding amongst the coconuts, or lurking on the leaves of the tree. I have mentioned in a couple of posts, how much I hate snakes; I am not a great lover of spiders either. In fact, I am probably more scared of spiders than I am of snakes,.......especially big spiders. I imagine I would have great difficulty hanging on to a coconut tree, if, whilst reaching out for the finest, mature nuts, I was bitten by either species. I am assuming I would come down from the tree a little quicker than I went up.
Given that I can't collect the nuts, Mel won't risk her nails, and my mum is too lazy; we had to headhunt two of the finest coconut collectors in the business, to make sure we get a regular supply of the world's finest coconuts. The photograph above shows Norrie and Dugoy, two more of our ever expanding team in Dolores. These guys make climbing trees look as easy as.........er..........climbing trees. If you have time, please take a look at our YouTube video on the collection of coconuts. It shows Dugoy in action. The guy is amazing, and he does it all without the aid of a safety net. (This is another issue, about which I will be posting very soon. We do realise we have a responsibility to make sure our employees are safe in their jobs.)
Anyway, back to the snakes. Over the past few weeks, Dugoy has been bitten twice. Apparently, it is extremely hard to see what is lying on the coconut, when you are concentrating on not falling off the tree, and these snakes are extremely sneaky. They just lie there, knowing full well that poor Dugoy might not notice them whilst he is searching for the most mature nuts. You will be pleased to know that he did not suffer any permanent injury from the bites; the second of which was only a graze. (In fact it was probably a lot of fuss about nothing.) However, it does go to show the hazards involved in VCO production........I must also mention, that I bashed my knee on the side of my desk last week, giving myself a very nasty bruise; so it is not just the guys on the front line who are suffering injury.......and of course, I am still recovering from my seven...............
Joking aside, Dugoy and Norrie are doing a fantastic job for us........and now they are famous!! Isn't the internet wonderful...........That is of course, if anybody is actually reading this rubbish.
The top photograph is of Norrie; the other is of Dugoy. I know the photographs are pathetic, but at least we are consistent. Please see some more pathetic photographs on our flikr site.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
These two young people, Nilda and Buloy, are heroes in my book. They have spent the last month travelling to remote parts of Eastern Samar, teaching the farmers how to produce coconut sugar.
What is coconut sugar?......I borrowed the following text from an article by some scientists at The Philippine Coconut Authority, who know a little more about coconut sugar than I do. In fact, they probably know more than me about almost everything..........Apart from football,.......and English folk-rock bands of the 1970's..............and heart bypasses. Did I mention............okay, I did mention, ad nauseam.
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"The coconut sap food products proved to be highly acceptable in terms of their social, economic and nutritional values. They are rich in total solids, sugar (sucrose), protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, amino acids. Coconut sap sugar contains high amounts of essential elements (as N, P, K, Mg, Cl and S) and micronutrients (B, Zn, Fe, Cu) compared to brown cane sugar and refined white sugar (almost without micronutrient). Coconut sap sugar has a low glycemic index (GI) of 35 indicating that this coconut food product is highly beneficial for the proper control and management of deadly diabetes mellitus, now a major disease of the rich and poor people Also, the coconut sugar is capable of lowering the total cholesterol and LDL (bad cholesterol). Physical (color) analysis of the coconut sap food products showed no food coloring, indicating that the simple processed products are natural ones."
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So, we know that coconut sugar is an amazing product; we just have to produce it in large quantities. To do this, we have to enlist the help of coconut farmers close enough to Dolores, so that if they can produce it, our guys can go and collect it. Of course we pay the farmers a fair price for each kilo they produce.
Nilda and Buloy have been have been travelling here, there, and everywhere, across Eastern Samar. They have been spreading the word about coconut sugar, and showing the farmers how they can produce it. They have travelled miles along the Dolores river. They have walked for hours around the local villages, and they have made valiant attempts to reach other nearby towns on Buloy's motorcycle. Unfortunately, the coastal road, south of Dolores, is just about the worst road I have ever seen. In fact, to call it a road, is probably an insult to roads. It is a pile of rocks which have been spread over 30 or 40 kilometres, and then flattened by somebody hitting them hard with a shovel. Anyway, the intrepid duo have tried twice to visit the small towns along that track, and both times they have returned injured. Buloy suffered cuts and bruises. Nilda had grazed knees, and a dent in her helmet. They don't give up though. They are going to make yet another attempt, as soon as the bike is fixed; which is why we are proud they work for us.
Latest news from
Some more of the production process.
(See Video at link below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2U8hy50-kY
www.cocovida.co.uk
www.coconutoilblog.co.uk
www.flickr.com/photos/cocovida
www.cocovida.co.uk/links
www.roots2ends.co.uk
