He was speaking at a media briefing in Colombo today (01).

Commenting on this, a highly placed official of the Coconut Research Institute says that if a million coconuts is wasted in this manner, there is a risk of a coconut shortage occurring in the local market as well as a subsequent price hike.

The official said that the coconut production in 2014 and 2015 were 2905 million and 3026 million respectively.

He added that 70% of the entire coconut production was consumed by the local market.

Although it has now been decided to import coconuts, it was not done in the last 02 years, he further said.