The Board of Copra Millers Fiji Limited met this week to relook at the price of the coconuts, which had reduced from $0.25 cents to $0.18 cents.

Board Chair Raj Sharma says the price reduction was due to the reduction in world market price of coconut oil that reduced from around $2500 to around $1668 and as such, the company reviewed its price on the raw material.

However, Sharma thanked the Government for stepping in to maintain the price of the whole nuts to $0.25 for the top quality nuts and for small or substandard ones, to $0.10 cents.

Sharma says it’s been a challenging period for the company however farmers have to consider the revival of the industry which comes with strong good will and determination.

CMFL still maintains the price of copra at $1000 per tonne through copra price support scheme, despite the world market price reduction.

The company is going through the transformation with diversification of the products such as virgin coconut oil and coconut meal, apart from the crude oil.

The crude oil mostly is exported and the price movement has huge impact.
The company in the next 2 months is looking at launching of the Virgin coconut oil in the local market.

The Board Chair says there are capital investment plans for the year, which would improve the quality of the oil and other related products.

Sharma has also thanked the farmers for their patience and urged them to continue to supply copra and nuts to the mill.