Customers and consumers who get their coconuts from The Greengrocer Inc. have told owner and president Lisa Wood that they prefer them from the Dominican Republic. She has tried a few other countries over the years, including Thailand, Costa Rica, Panama, Brazil, and Mexico. “For whatever reason, perhaps they’re grown more inland or it’s the soil – something just changes.” She says perhaps it’s that harvest isn’t done until they’ve stayed on the tree long enough to mature fully.
She said her father-in law was one of the first to bring coconuts from the Dominican back in 1958. “Back then it was maybe two containers a year, now we’re pretty steady at one a week, sometimes two a week.” Wood says supply is good, though of course it can be hindered at certain times of the year during rainy weather. They’ve also made changes to production schedules, harvesting ahead of time when the season approaches. “It used to be difficult, like during Christmas holidays because they would lose their workers but we’ve seen it evolve into a much more sophisticated industry.” She says supply also goes to Haiti because their trees are sourced for building rather than keeping them for harvest. Coconuts are imported for her Ontario customers and also get shipped as far as Nova Scotia.
Pricing has gone up since she entered the company about 24 years ago. “I’ve seen a huge increase in the price. Now we tend to fluctuate by 2 - $3 dollars on a bag depending on what’s going on, and supply and demand. The DR is exporting a lot more to Europe especially in the summer months. It puts a little tightening on (the market).”
Coconuts are a big staple for certain demographics and even though they’re trendy right now they can be an intimidating commodity for some consumers to buy and try to open. Wood is working with a wholesaler currently by taking the coconut out of the shell and packaging in bags, although it has a limited weeklong shelf life. She would also like to be able to offer a peeled product and has recently purchased a peeling machine from Thailand to see if it’s viable. “A lot of people would probably eat coconuts a lot more if they weren’t intimidated by the hard shell.”
Wood plans to travel to Costa Rica soon to look at a carrot grower/packer. “Even though Ontario grows a tremendous amount of carrots at certain times of the year storage carrots run out we’re sort of in no man’s land - we end up sourcing carrots from either California or Mexico,” she said. “And here’s an opportunity to perhaps bring some in from Costa Rica.”
Green Grocer Inc. recently established a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter and will also be will be launching a new website in the near future.
For more information:
Lisa Wood
The Greengrocer Inc.
Ph: (905) 670-3621
