A couple of agribusiness groups from Haiti and the Dominican Republic met on Thursday at the Dominican Agribusiness Board (JAD) in order to exchange experiences and analyse a coconut planting project that has the financial support of the European Union, which funded the study for its development.
"There are about one million coconut plants in Haiti and we have about two million in the Dominican Republic. The goal, however, is to have eight million plants because companies like Coca Cola are developing large coconut projects around the world since they want to launch an energy drink that is made out of coconut water," said JAD's CEO, Osmar Benitez.
He said that they could get coconut water, cream, milk, oil, gourd and wood, among other things from this crop, which would work in their advantage as soon as production increased.
Dufort expressed the importance of the meeting and said that his country is a major producer of essential oils, which it exports to France, and that they could take advantage of the both country's expertise to launch a joint coconut production project.
Source: diariolibre