CMIC

COCONUT SUGAR FROM COCONUT SHELL A new kind of coconut sugar can be extracted from the shell of mature coconut. It looks unimaginable but the fact is that a P2-billion company has been set up at the DADC Economic Zone in Sta. Cruz, davao del Sur, to produce the novel product. The company is called CJ Toyota Tsu Sho Philippines, Inc. , said to be a joint venture of Japan’s biggest car company and a Korean partner. The company has a huge processing facility that was inaugurated about couple of months ago. The product is called Xylose coco sugar and is said to be for export to Japan and Korea. The product comes in a very fine powder form that is immaculate white. It is very sweet and is said to be used for the manufacture of toothpaste, cewing gum and possibly other products that need sweetener. Administrator Euclides Forbes of the Philippine Coconut Administration showed a sample of the product and also let the writer test the same. According to this writer, it’s really very sweet, and is said to have an even lower glycemic index (GI) than coconut sugar made from the toddy or tuba from the unopened coconut flower. This would be perfect for diabetics. The company is said to be buying coconut shell for P5 per kilo. After extracting the sugar from the shell, the shell that has been broken to pieces can still be used to make activated carbon by subjecting the into very high temperature. (http://blog.agriculture.ph/category/coconut)