In a big relief to exporters, US removes coconut from its allergen listing

Thiruvananthapuram: After years of efforts by various stakeholders in the coconut industry, the US recently decided to remove coconut from the list of food allergens. The decision has brought cheers to the coconut growers, who are mostly from the south Indian states.

The US authorities were so far considering coconut as a tree nut and included it among the list of food allergens as per the Food Allergen Labelling and Consumer Protection Act.

The term 'nut' in coconut is believed to be the culprit for putting it on the US' allergy radar.

This decision was causing hurdles for exporters of coconut and coconut based food products to the US, despite the considerable demand.

After years of long persuasion by various forums like the Coconut Coalition of the Americas (CCA), which include exporters from India, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed coconut from the list of food allergens.

"The US agency's decision is a big relief to exporters and could boost coconut exports from the country," Coconut Development Board director (marketing) Deepthi Nair S told DH.

She said that the Indian coconut food product exporters were facing several challenges due to classification of coconut as a tree nut. The exporters had to comply with the stringent allergen labelling which increased the production costs.

Moreover, inclusion of coconut as a food allergen was also creating confusion among customers in the US market. Even cafeterias at many universities and hospitals avoided using coconut food products owing to this.

Hence the decision of the FDA is a major relief and a boost to the coconut export sector, she said.

According to the CDB, in 2023-24 India exported coconut food products worth Rs. 924 crore of which export worth Rs. 268 crore was to the US. The US comes second after Gulf countries in importing coconut food products from India.

Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the largest coconut producing states in Indian. Kerala leads the tally with regard to coconut food products export. In 2023-24 coconut food products worth Rs. 459 crore was exported from Kerala, according to the CDB.

Shrinivasan Ramaswamy, one of the key coconut exporters of India and a technical member of the Coconut Coalition of the Americas, said that it took years of efforts by various stake holders of the industry to convince the US agency that coconut is not a tree nut, but a fruit. Study reports and test reports were being constantly provided to the US agency in this regard.

"The exporters are relieved from the cumbersome process so far involved in exporting coconut food products. Hence the FDA's decision will definitely have its positive impact on coconut exports," said Ramaswamy, who is managing director of Tiruppur (Tamil Nadu) based Apex Coco and Solar Energy Limited.