Harindra Mahakumara pioneers techniques to extend its shelf life
King coconut is a natural wonder. With a husk in a pleasant orange hue, the sweetest variety of Cocos nucifera indigenous to Sri Lanka, is packed with lot of minerals like calcium, iron, phosphorus and a range of vitamins.
An effective remedy for kidney, urinary, intestinal and skin disorders, native Ayurveda physicians in Sri Lanka consider king coconut water an invaluable medicinal ingredient, and by sportsmen as a natural drink rich in electrolytes. Up to a few years ago this variety of coconuts could be enjoyed only in home gardens, street corners or Sunday markets, till an enterprising young man, Harindra Mahakumara of Panadura, invented a revolutionary method to bottle the water extending its shelf life, with no artificial preservatives and its natural health properties in tact up to one year.
“I thought of bottling king coconut water after reading an article in a paper that around 50,000 litres of it going waste annually” Mahakumara told Sri Lankan website Rivira online. “Natural king coconut water has a short shelf life of a few days and I began to experiment scientific ways of preserving it for a longer time, and after so many frustrating experiments extending over a number of years and about 200 failed attempts later, I managed to devise a system to preserve my canned drinks for one year.” He adds that he had to be hospitalized for a few weeks to treat high blood pressure which he directly links to his agonizing ordeal to find the right technology.
When he began the project many people were sceptical, questioning the sanity behind spending money and energy to package something that is widely available in street corners, but Mahakumara thought otherwise. “We are a fast developing country and people have become too busy, at the same time concerned about their health. It is extremely difficult to find a king coconut when you need one in the city or in public transport. I gave my idea a shot believing that bottling and canning of king coconut water is a better alternative as that can be carried easily and also as a better choice for pop drinks that come with lot of health hazards”.
The initial tests were done by him, assisted by his wife, ‘who is behind me every step of the way’, he says. “We were conducting experiments under 100 per cent hygienic environment. We did not even talk during tests thinking that our saliva might contaminate the product.”
Initially, he extended shelf life of his product up to 20 days and began to supply his drinks to tourist hotels but due to poor sales and bad storage facilities the cans were returned.
Even while recuperating in the hospital he refused to give up on his dream project and was thinking how to get out of the rut he had landed in. Soon after returning home, Mahaumara began to develop machineries to can his products. He contacted the Coconut Research Institute and Sri Lanka Technical Institute for some assistance but they were unable to help as the institutions too were in experimental stages to find the right method to can coconut water.
“I developed the country’s first beverage can sealer to bottle king coconut water. I could not afford imported machinery but on the other hand they were not suitable for my purposes,” says Mahakumara, emphasizing that his factory which operates in three rooms with six employees is largely a creation of his own ‘wild imagination’.
He considers October 20 of 2016 as a red-letter day in his burgeoning industry. That was the day he completed his machine to bottle king coconut water. He manufactured it on his own using local raw material and only thing he bought were the bottles and the lids.
As the response from the Sri Lankan consumers was not very encouraging he began to look for foreign markets with the help of Sri Lanka’s Export Development Board and Mahakumara is now exporting his product to two countries: Germany and Russia.
“There are lot of competitive brands of coconut water being exported by countries like Vietnam and Thailand with higher sugar content. King coconut is not one among them. I market my products under Hela Coco Energy brand name. If I want to popularize my drinks in western countries there is a need for publicity campaigns to compete with the more established brands by making the westerners understand the healthy benefits of my product which is close to nature,” he adds.
Today his monthly output is around 30,000 units, bottled in his three-room factory under tight hygienic standards with ambitious plans to expand production. The business has generated dozens of indirect employments.
He has a large number of suppliers but sometimes the problem is ‘less yield of king coconut during extended drought periods’. He lives in Kalutara district, one of the highest coconut growing areas in Sri Lanka, and says he is able to ensure a continuous production with a network of regular suppliers. Kumarage hopes to promote his bottled water internationally hoping that the popularity of his brand will increase when people realize its natural health benefits.
On an optimistic note Kumarage says that he has plans to make his products internationally popular. That, we hope, won’t be a distant dream for a man who did the unthinkable by his innovative skills coupled with sheer determination. (newstrails.com)
