DUNGUN, Nov 9 — A total of 69 participants in the Projek Berkelompok Kelapa Kampung Dendang, here, claim that their income has been affected since the beginning of this year due to an influx of imported coconuts in the market from Indonesia since the start of the year.

Project head Mohamed Zakaria Awang, 66, said that most wholesalers and traders of coconuts and coconut milk here prefer to source imported coconuts from Indonesia because they are cheaper compared to local ones.

He said that the situation caused a decrease in demand for the Matang variety of coconuts produced by the project participants, which in turn affected their sales and income.

Overall, the participants of the group project planted 5,000 coconut trees over an area of 20 hectares in 2009 and started yielding results in 2012.

“Every month, the growers can harvest about 500 coconuts to sell to wholesalers and coconut milk traders as our source of income,” he said when met at the Projek Berkelompok Kelapa Kampung Dendang site here today.

Mohamed Zakaria said that currently, the coconuts produced by the project’s participants are being purchased by the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) at a price of RM1.10 each to help market the growers’ produce following the influx of imported coconuts in the market, compared to RM2.50 each which were sold to wholesalers and traders previously.

“All this time, coconut growers were able to earn more than RM2,000 a month, but that amount has dropped to around RM500 a month currently due to the drop in coconut prices.

“Meanwhile, imported coconuts from Indonesia are sold at only 80 sen each in the market, putting pressure on the prices of local coconuts,” he said.

Another project participant, Zahari Abdullah, 61, said that some participants are no longer interested in continuing the group project due to the decline in coconut prices since the start of this year.

He said that the situation caused some of the participants’ coconut plantations to no longer be properly managed, even though the trees were still producing yields.

“If this situation continues, we are worried that more participants will decide to leave this project because the sales results can no longer provide returns like before,” he said.

Meanwhile, Terengganu Fama director Muhamad Fadlee Hassan said that his team had purchased coconuts from the group participants from April 29 to November 3.

“The coconuts that are purchased will be marketed to local wholesalers and Fama retail outlets around the Kuala Terengganu district,” he added. — Bernama