Coconut milk
This article is about the coconut palm and the coconut. For other meanings of coconut, see coconut (disambiguation).
The coconut palm or coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) is a tropical palm plant on which the coconut grows. Cocos nucifera is the only species of the genus. There are several varieties. Coconut palms have been cultivated for at least 3000 years. In 1971, the coconut palm still supplied about 8 percent of the world's vegetable oil needs; in 2011, despite a near doubling of production, it supplied only about 2 percent. The coconut palm is also used in many other ways.
The word coco goes back through Spanish and Portuguese coco to Late Latin coccus and ultimately to Ancient Greek κόκκος kókkos, meaning "kernel" or "berry". It has the same origin as coccus.
A Latin name was nux indica.
Meaning
In people's imagination, no plant species shapes the image of tropical coasts as much as coconut palms. For thousands of years, the coconut palm has provided the inhabitants of tropical coasts with an excellent source of food and raw materials: its fruit as a rich food and drink (raw or fermented), its wood as a building material for huts, its leaves as roofing material, its fibres for weaving house walls, baskets, mats, ropes and the dry coconut shells as fuel. In the Indian state of Kerala, for example, a 0.2 hectare plantation with 35 palm trees already provides enough dry leaves, spathes and stone shells to cover the annual fuel requirement of 2500 to 3600 kg for a family of five (daily requirement 7-10 kg).
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Device for scraping the flesh (East Timor)
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Device for rasping the nut from East Africa
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Ropes made of coconut fibres on the market
Drying coconut meat in the husk (Fiji Islands)
Economic importance
In 2019, 62,455,009 tonnes of coconuts were harvested worldwide, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). A total of 11.8 million ha were registered as cultivated area.
The following table gives an overview of the ten largest producers of coconuts in the world, which together produced 91.1% of the harvest volume.
| Largest coconut producers (2019) | ||
| Rank | Country | Quantity |
| 1 | Indonesia | 17.128.595 |
| 2 | Philippines | 14.765.057 |
| 3 | India | 14.682.000 |
| 4 | Sri Lanka | 2.468.800 |
| 5 | Brazil | 2.330.949 |
| 6 | Vietnam | 1.677.044 |
| 7 | Mexico | 1.287.957 |
| 8 | Papua New Guinea | 1.192.816 |
| 9 | Thailand | 806.026 |
| 10 | Malaysia | 536.606 |
| the top ten | 56.875.850 | |
| remaining countries | 5.579.159 | |
