From the archive record
Coconut is one of the most important plantation crops of Orissa. The area under coconut production in the State is about 43.3 thousand hectares producing 296.05 million nuts. The present productivity of the crop has been reported to be 8741 nuts per hectare. About 85 per cent of the area and production of coconut comes from the undivided coastal districts of Puri, Cuttack, Balasore and Gunjam. In coastal coconut growing belt of Orissa 17 full and dwarf varieties were identified based on size, shape and colour of nuts. Even though Orissa is a coconut producing state, it has been reported that there are no coconut oil producing unit operating in the state. However, there is a good market for coconut oil for toiletry use with annual consumption of about 8 thousand tonnes per year. Puri and Gu