Archive for coconut

Coconuts

Posted in Food, Travel with tags , , , , on June 25, 2013 by David McInerny

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When I’m asked what type of business is taking me to the Philippines, and I say coconuts, I enjoy the looks I receive, which range from the quizzical to almost dismissive. But a confectionery company needs good quality coconut, and lots of it, so here I am in Candelaria on the island of Luzon.

Sure, what I buy starts as an exotic, tropical cluster high atop a picturesque, scythe curved tree. But it’s fruit by the truckload, after tree climbers with real scythes have done their death-defying duty, that I’m after. Husks removed, and brown skin expertly pared by hand. White meat washed, shredded and desiccated. Bagged and loaded on shipping containers to America to be lovingly coated in chocolate.

It’s a great job.

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Shucking Coconuts

Posted in Food, Travel with tags , , on July 23, 2012 by David McInerny

A two-hour drive south of Manila is the rural town of Calendaria. The main road is newly paved, and entrepreneurs line both sides of the street – juice shops, piglet vendors, and “eateries” with steaming pots of wonderful smelling stuff I longed to try, but I was working.

Coconut is big business in the Philippines, and a major export. Coconut meat, flaked coconut, coconut cream, coconut milk, coconut oil and coconut water. Calendaria boasts a major coconut processor. It’s a modern facility with a combination of stainless steel and ubiquitous Asian labor.

It’s piecework. From those who unload trucks, to the workers that shell and pare the nuts, each plant employee makes minimum wage plus a bonus based of the number of coconuts they prepare for processing during each five-hour shift. It’s coveted work, and the work conditions are excellent. The workers wave and smile at the towering American, and the floor manager allows the crew to stare at me for a moment. I wave and say “hello,” and a chorus of “hello’s” cascade back. Beaming smiles all around.

I wonder if the average Calendaria worker knows how much of her labor sends product all over the world. And I wonder if lovers of coconut in their candy and baked goods know that these happy, hardworking people in the Philippines make their affordable luxury possible.

 

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