KERAFED ( ml, കേരാഫെഡ്) is the top-level co-operative federation of coconut farmers in the southern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n state of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. KERAFED is also a producer and marketer of products based on coconut. It is the largest producer of coconut oil in India. In July 2019, Minister for Agriculture

V. S. Sunil Kumar V. S. Sunil Kumar (born 30 May 1967) is an Indian politician and the former Minister for Agriculture, Kerala. In 2011, he was elected from Kaipamangalam constituency and in 2016, from Thrissur constituency to Kerala Legislative Assembly. He ...

launched the ''State-Level Raw Coconut Procurement Drive'' with the support of around 190 primary agriculture co-operative societies in Kerala. The latest procurement initiative would assure coconut farmers a supportive price of per kilogram.

History

KERAFED was constituted by the

Government of Kerala Government of Kerala is the subnational government of the Indian state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who selects all the other ministers. The chief minister and their most senior ministers belong to the supreme decision ...

in 1987 with the objective of procuring the produce of coconut farmers to regulate marketing operations to retrieve the segment of price crunch they were confronting. A production unit relating to the sector was created in 1991 to crush and market

copra Copra (from ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted from copr ...

procured from the farmers at remunerative price to relieve the section of price crunch and to cater the edible oil requirement of the society by maintaining high quality standards. During the financial year 2009–2010, KERAFED procured 24,500 metric tonnes of

for its operations.

Current operations

KERAFED has two expeller oil extraction facilities—one at Karunagappalli, Kollam and the other at Naduvannur, Kozhikode—and caters to about 500,000 consumers in

through 14,000 retail outlets. The oil complex in Karunagappalli, is the largest coconut oil mill in the sub-continent with an installed capacity of 20 tonnes per day (TPD) (7504 TPA, 2009–2010). The facility at Naduvannur provides a production of 7.5 TPD (2693 TPA, 2009–2010). Total production was about 10,000 metric tonnes during the year 2009–2010. During this period, the facilities used 15,887 metric tonnes of

and generated 5,111 metric tonnes of "pinnack" by-product.

Products

"KERA" brand of coconut oil is sold in HDPE bottles of 100 ml, 200 ml and 500 ml; PET bottles of 1000 ml; and polythene pouches of 500 ml and 1000 ml.

References

External links

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Food and Beverage News

{{Coconut Coconut organizations Cooperatives in Kerala Agricultural marketing in India Commodity markets in Kerala Organisations based in Thiruvananthapuram 1987 establishments in Kerala Agriculture companies established in 1987 Marketing companies established in 1987 Agricultural cooperatives in India Agricultural organisations based in India