THE COPRA PROBLEM

Conventional coconut oil comes from the dried flesh of coconut, called copra. The copra is dried in a wood-fired oven, or in the sun, over a period of a few days. It is time consuming, dirty, lonely, arduous, male dominated, energy intensive and low paid work. Many farmers consider it a form of slavery.

The course of the copra from the farm to the mill is interesting:

After drying, the copra is stuffed into burlap bags. When full, these bags weigh about 80 kg or 400 to 500 coconuts. Full bags are transported by canoe or road (if available) to a local district center which has a dock and a copra buyer / trader. The bags are weighed and stored under cover until a coastal cargo ship calls at the wharf. The full bags are then transported into the ship's hold (a terrible job) to be taken to an export port, here the bags are reweighed (they lose oil and weight in the warehouses and in the holds of local merchant ships) then emptied onto a concrete slab in a warehouse to be pushed and pushed by bulldozers onto large tarpaulins which are lifted by a crane. from their corners and dumped in bulk in bulk in the hold of an international bulk cargo ship for transport to a large industrial oil mill - often in Europe or Asia. Unsanitary drying, humid tropical conditions, bulk shipments and long distances lead to long delays and mold growth on copra. Sometimes it leads to carcinogenic aflatoxin contamination Sometimes it leads to carcinogenic aflatoxin contamination Sometimes it leads to carcinogenic aflatoxin contamination
The extraction of coconut oil requires large-scale, high-pressure, expensive and energy-intensive equipment. Unhygienic copra means that the resulting oil is normally of low quality with a free fatty acid (FFA) level well above 3%. (FFA is a measure of the rancidity of oil).

Therefore, coconut oil requires refining, bleaching, and deodorization (RBD) to create a commercially acceptable product. The refining process uses hydrochloric acid, solvents and steam to remove contamination. Some residual solvents remain in the oil. The process also removes natural volatiles and anti-oxidants that give pure coconut oil its unique flavor and aroma. The entire process from farm to refined oil can take several months. The residual copra meal is only suitable as animal feed, but even here care is needed as it can be contaminated with carcinogenic aflatoxin.

The tropical world is home to over a billion coconut palms, producing over 50 billion coconuts each year. And yet, due to the low income earned in the world market from coconut products, many coconut groves are dilapidated, with nuts and old trees lying where they fall, encouraging plant diseases and pest insects. .

With copra prices fluctuating, farmers only harvest their nuts when prices are high or when they are in desperate need of money. For many remote islands with lots of coconuts, copra remains a risky business due to the paucity of shipping services.

There is an urgent need to recover the Tree of Life.

Download a free copy of the book: The Coconut Odyssey: The Bounteous Possabilities of the Tree Of Life. By Mike Foale (Australian Center for International Agricultural Research, Canberra 2003).

THE DME® SOLUTION

Direct Micro Expelling uses a totally different approach to coconut compared to that of the copra industry. With DME®, we are bringing the (small-scale) processing to the nuts rather than bringing them (in degraded form) to a (large-scale) processing plant in another country. The result is that DME® produces a much higher quality virgin coconut oil (VCO) made from coconut oil (CNO).
“Direct Micro Expelling” is very descriptive of the technology. This is:

• Direct - fast (oil produced within one hour of opening the nut) and efficient (its oil extraction efficiency or OEE is 85% of the available oil).

• Micro - small scale (family farm size).

• Expulsion - extraction of virgin oil and flour

The DME® process focuses on a small, manageable daily throughput of up to 1000 nuts. This is a “dry process” using its shells as fuel. Whereas the exact same resource transformed into copra takes a week to manufacture and package, then several weeks to be shipped and processed in large oil mills overseas.

The gender-neutral DME® process depends on simple, easy-to-learn skills, rather than sophisticated equipment. Families really enjoy working together on the production of DME® VCO, as they generally describe the male-dominated manufacturing of copra as a form of slavery.

DME® regularly gives meaningful employment to teams of 3 to 5 women and / or men of all ages. A team can work on the process more or less when it suits them - whether it's 2 hours a day on 2 days a week or 8 hours a day for 6 days a week - it could even be operated as a team all day and night. Production can take place year round and in virtually any weather.

It provides direct local jobs in rural areas in nut collection and oil production, and it has multiplier effects on income and employment. When the oil is packaged locally or used as an input by local producers of cosmetics, soaps and detergents, there is significant added value. In addition, the residues are intended for bakery and livestock.

In general, the gross yield of the DME® process is about 5 times, and the net return is about 8 times that of copra.
Average daily production is typically 20-60 liters (depending on the number of hours worked by a shift), with skilled operators achieving an oil extraction efficiency (OEE) of over 85% (of available oil) . The number of nuts needed to produce one liter of oil depends on the size of the nuts. The range is between 9 and 18 nuts per liter.

The DME® process is made fully sustainable by using the coconut shell as fuel for the dryer. It does not need wood from local forest resources or non-renewable fossil fuels.

Besides its uses as a cooking oil or for moisturizing and massaging the skin, virgin coconut oil is a good lamp fuel and, of all vegetable oils, it is the best direct substitute for motor fuel. diesel.

After the extraction of DME® Coconut Oil, the residual flour is a highly nutritious defatted shredded coconut with many potential uses. It has a high protein and dietary fiber content and can be ground into a tasty gluten-free flour. It is excellent for baking cookies and cakes and as a staple.

DME® equipment can also produce heavy coconut cream for local household use.

DME® technology is indeed “Empowering”.