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Technical Panel Discussion of the Webinar on Coconut Husk, Cocopeat, and Activated Carbon

International Coconut Community (ICC) in collaboration with International Trade Centre (ITC) organized a follow up panel discussion on 2 November 2021 to clarify and reinforce learning on “Coconut husk, Cocopeat and Activated Carbon”, webinar which was held on 12 October 2021. There were 55 people who participated in the discussion, including senior officers, industry development partners, and farmers from the African and Caribbean countries.

The training is the second of the series of training and webinar lined up, as part of the MoU executed between ICC and the ITC with the purpose to establish a framework of engagement and cooperation between ITC and the ICC to develop mechanisms for transferring technology relating to value-added coconut products, under the project “Alliances for the Coconut Industry Development Expansion and Enhanced Support for the Caribbean”. The other partner collaborator of this series is CARIFORUM financed by the European Union and implemented by ITC, CARDI, and important Alliances partners, ACP, and Coconut Industry Board.

The discussion started with the introductory remarks by Mr. William Castro Rodriguez, ITC and the welcome remarks by Dr. Jelfina C. Alouw, Executive Director, ICC. The resource speakers participated in the discussion were the speakers who presented in the webinar conducted on 12 October Mr. Chetiya Dharmadasa, Divisional Manager, HAYCARB PLC, Sri Lanka; Mr. S. Mahendran, Chief Executive Officer, Lanktrad International (Pvt) Ltd., and President of Sri Lankan Coir and Allied Products Manufacturers Association, Sri Lanka; and Mr. Radhakrishnan. A., Assistant Director, National Coir Training and Design Centre, Coir Board (Government of India), Kerala, India.

In the panel discussion, the resource speakers addressed the questions asked by the participants based on the webinar held on 12 October 2021. The major questions and topics discussed included: environmental issues of the charcoal processing, granulating mechanism of gas plant, steam, boiler, and thermal; possibility of use of green coconut husks as a raw material; best method to produce soft coir without causing a damaging rotting process; the use of microbial enzymes; physical, microbiological, and chemical process and their effects on the coir products; various application of coir; technology for small scale cocopeat production and investment; the machinery and production process: from coconut shell, charcoal, to activated carbon.

In her closing remarks Dr. Jelfina Alouw, Executive Director, ICC, expressed her appreciation to the resource speakers for sharing their invaluable knowledge, substantial input and experience to the participants. She also mentioned the possibility of the participants to visit the processing units in Sri Lanka, India, Philippines and Indonesia which are the major producers of these products and can learn more about the technologies and machineries.

There was an in-depth discussion on the topics, and the speakers addressed the queries. This technical panel discussion was moderated by Mr. William Castro Rodriguez, ITC.

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