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How To Start Coconut Business In Nigeria: Best Guide

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How To Start Coconut Business In Nigeria: Best Guide

Coconut business is very lucrative especially if you put good money into it but very stressful. It requires applying constant marketing strategies to remain on top. And it is not a get quick rich kind of business because you have to look for buyers after production especially for those into oil. There are many ways to go into coconut business such as; coconut farming, coconut oil production and selling of coconut.

Asians are the major producers of coconut oil; Ghana are equally doing well in Africa contributing immensely to their economy through coconut processing business. In Nigeria, coconut can be bought in large quantities in Badagry.

In this post you will get to know how many coconut will give you 1 litre of coconut oil. If you can produce and sell 1 litre every day, you will be making not less than #100,000 monthly. Because a litter can be sold for #6,000-#8,000 even more. Go to a nearby super market and find out the price of coconut oil.

This is for the people asking if coconut business is profitable in Nigeria or coconut business profits. You will see how to process coconut and the items required for processing. Others are; how to start coconut oil business even when you are not processing, where to source for coconut, where to sell coconut oil etc.

Coconut business, coconut oil business

COCONUT OIL PRODUCTION IN NIGERIA

To start large coconut oil production you will need more than 10 million because the machines are very expensive. Also to run coconut manufacturing for good profits you have to operate a medium or large scale production. The profits in coconut oil production depend largely on the type of coconut used. You also need NAFDAC approval to be able to sell in the super markets, shops, health institutions, cosmetics industries and everywhere.

As I said before in my earlier post; Cold press is very expensive but produces higher yield. The price of imported fully automated processor is about 3 million. And it comes in a set containing;

  • Roaster
  • Screw press
  • Filling and sealing machine
  • Copra chopper
  • Coding labeller etc.

It is always good to start small maybe from boiling or fermentation to modified kitchen method and then to sunlight method. Produce your coconut oil in batches so that you will have what to sell everytimr.

Coconut oil business is largely dependent upon on the; Price of raw materials (coconut) which is usually affected by forex. To make money from coconut oil business you have to produce pure virgin coconut oil.

THINGS NEEDED TO SUCCEED IN COCONUT OIL PRODUCTION

  • Factory
  • Expeller
  • Where to source good and large matured coconut
  • The type of coconut to produce, cold press or wet milled?

STEPS IN PRODUCING 1 LITRE OF COCONUT OIL

15-20 big mature coconut will give you one litre of coconut oil. To grate these number of coconut manually will take about 2-3 hours depending on how knowledgable you are on it. At the end you will come up with 1 litre of coconut oil. The process of producing 1 litre is even very stressful for small scale coconut oil processing.

DE-SHELL THE COCONUT

For you to de-shell 20 coconut, it will take about 15-20 minutes depending on experience but it can take up to an hour for some people especially beginners.

GRATING

After removing the meat from the nut, you grate them. But you can wash the copra before grating to remove dirt.

DRYING

Dry the grated meat with low heat either oven or sun. It will take about an hour or more for it to oven dry. For sun drying, it will take 3 hours if the sun is very high during dry season. In all you have to dry the grated copra to lowest moisture content for the expeller machine to be able to extract oil from it.

USE EXPELLER MACHINE

Switch the expeller machine on and pour the dry coconut copra inside. The machine will press out cloudy fluid which is more than 1 litre within few minutes of feeding in.

LEAVE THE CLOUDY OIL FOR SOME DAYS

Turn the cloudy oil in a clean bowl and stir for 30 minutes before allowing it to stay for some days. This process will make the cloudy fluid to settle in the bottom of the bowl while the top becomes very clear.

FILTER

Use a filter plate to filter out the oil and package for sale or use.

CHALLENGES OF COCONUT OIL PRODUCTION

Power (electricity): lack of stable electricity is a very big challenge for the manufacturing of coconut oil.
Price of coconut: the price of coconut is also something to look at because it affects profits. For instance before dollar went up you can buy a large coconut for #100 even less but after the increase in dollars the price goes for #200. Instead of producing 1 litre of coconut oil for #1,500, one will end up producing for #3,000.
Availability of coconut: to succeed and remain in coconut business you have to establish your factory where there is availability of coconut. The closer you are to the source the cheaper it is to produce coconut oil. You can buy copra from countries like Brazil’ Caribbean etc.

IMPORTANCE OF COCONUT OIL

Coconut oil is a multifunctional product. You can produce so many other things from it, such as:

  • Skin care
  • Hair product
  • Baby lotion or baby oil
  • Soap production
  • Flavouring of food
  • Cooking etc.

COCONUT OIL BUSINESS AS WHOLESALE/RETAILER

You don’t have to be a coconut manufacturer before you can start coconut business. Buy coconut oil in bulk from manufacturers, we have but a few of them in Nigeria mainly concentrated in Lagos and Ogun. Or you buy from coconut oil dealers, these are people who buy from the factory and supply in wholesale.

I bought mine from a supplier who source coconut oil from Ghana about five years ago before dollar increased. 10 litres then was #6,000, transportation to Akwa Ibom #1,500 everything become #7,500. I packaged 50CL for #1,000, you can imagine the profits.

Buy and package them with your own container and label then sale them as your product. But give credence to the manufacturer. At the back of your label write down the name of the producers and then you say packed and marketed by so so…

MARKETING

Start coconut business by selling to people around you first such as; neighbours, friends, family and close persons. Nursing mothers or mothers with babies and ladies are the highest patronisers. You can get a good number of them in the hospital during antenatal and postnatal. But, how to market it openly will be a problem since touting is not allowed in the hospital. How to reach them one on one will depend on the strategy you chose. When I was selling moringa products, I my products to a lady that sells bookshop in the premise at a reduce price and collect back my money when she sells.

Create a Facebook page or Instagram where you can upload pictures or videos for a large online audience. It moves faster this way. Online coconut business is what many entrepreneurs are doing.

Rent a shop or put a kiosk in a very busy environment where people can easily see you. So that whenever they want to buy even if you go around to supply, they can come to your shop and purchase.

Obese persons buy coconut oil more a lot. If you have more around you already have a prospective buyer. Because Virgin coconut oil is known to burn down fat as a result of that fat people that want to slim down patronise coconut oil tremendously.

Coconut business, coconut oil

COCONUT FARMING

If you have one million and a piece of land instead of going into coconut oil production you start coconut farming. It is more profitable than the production. You will make money from the sell of coconut. Also you will make good money from selling coconut oil when you add value, the profit becomes exponential. I have A-Z post on coconut farming you can look it up in other to get a better understanding of what I am saying.

Plant 150 hybrid coconut seedlings for a hectare, each coconut tree can produce about 500 coconuts. Assuming it produces 250 coconut and one cost #100 so 100×250=#25,000
2500×150 trees=3,750,000 yearly. This will continue for a long time since coconut is a cash crop. The good thing is that if dollar increases the price will also increase.

CONCLUSION

Coconut business is very lucrative irrespective of how or which one you are going into. Coconut oil processing is not an easy business but you will make good profit either as a retailer or producer. If you have the money establish coconut plantation for your coconut manufacturing company for huge profit.

If you want to know how interesting coconut business is or how individuals are rushing the consumption of coconut. Check out coconut vendors on the roadside you will see how people are queuing to buy and consume coconut at the spot.

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