Western wellness influencers once dubbed coconuts the new "it" superfood. Even though nutritionists couldn't agree if they deserved the hype, people kept gobbling them up. But what did the soaring demand mean for coconut producers? Well, harvesting coconuts is dangerous work. Farmers risk their lives climbing 80-foot palm trees to get the fruit. And processors brave saws to remove the pesky shells. We visit Sri Lanka to see how coconut farmers bear the burden of the West's superfood obsessions.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 This factory in Sri Lanka produces
00:04 more than 30,000 metric tons of coconut a year,
00:09 but almost none of it stays in the country.
00:11 It's exported to Europe, the US, and Canada.
00:15 The demand for coconut products
00:17 has exploded in recent decades,
00:19 with companies touting it as a superfood.
00:22 US consumption of coconut oil
00:26 has spiked nearly 30% since 2018.
00:30 This company, Navic Mills,
00:32 didn't even exist until five years ago.
00:34 Today, it's one of the largest
00:36 coconut processors in the country,
00:39 making about $40 million a year
00:41 selling coconut oil, cream, water, and milk.
00:45 But feeding the globe's coconut obsession can be dangerous.
00:50 Farmers like Shihan Madhushanka
00:53 climb 80-foot trees with their bare hands and feet
00:56 to harvest the fruit one by one.
01:00 (speaking in foreign language)
01:03 In the factory, workers brave spinning saws
01:06 to shell thousands of coconuts a day,
01:09 all because of the West's insatiable thirst
01:13 for natural coconut products.
01:15 But are their health benefits overhyped?
01:18 I don't think a superfood tag should be attached
01:22 to any food, because I think what it does
01:24 is create consumer confusion.
01:26 We head to Sri Lanka to see how far producers are going
01:29 to satisfy the globe's coconut craving.
01:32 Coconuts have been a staple food in Sri Lanka
01:37 for millennia.
01:38 Today, it's one of the biggest producers in the world,
01:41 growing roughly 2.5 million metric tons a year.
01:45 But farmers face challenges to keep up with this pace.
01:49 For one, trees take a while to grow,
01:51 sometimes more than six years
01:53 before they produce any coconuts.
01:56 They can live up to a century,
01:58 growing fruit every month and a half during their lifetime.
02:01 To make sure they're constantly harvesting ripe fruit,
02:04 farmers manage massive forests in rotation.
02:08 Harvesting a new area every day means farmers
02:10 can also inspect the palms for any pest infestation.
02:14 White flies and Asian rhinoceros beetles
02:17 are coconut palms' biggest enemies.
02:20 (speaking in foreign language)
02:25 These giant beetles burrow into the core
02:27 and eat the nutrients.
02:29 If a tree is too far gone,
02:32 farmers have to burn and remove it
02:34 to prevent the beetles from spreading.
02:36 (speaking in foreign language)
02:40 Farmers carry their picking tools
02:43 as they head out to harvest.
02:45 (speaking in foreign language)
02:50 That stick is one way to reach the coconuts
02:54 without putting anyone at risk.
02:56 But often, the only way to get the fruit is to climb.
03:00 Shahan started scaling palms four years ago.
03:04 (speaking in foreign language)
03:10 With only his hands and feet, he shimmies up the tree.
03:13 It takes him only two to three minutes to reach the top.
03:18 Now, he's 80 feet up with no rope to protect him.
03:24 (speaking in foreign language)
03:28 Shahan says he's never fallen,
03:31 but a fall from this height could be deadly.
03:33 (speaking in foreign language)
03:38 He knows which coconuts are ready
03:42 when he hears water sloshing around inside.
03:44 He'll repeat this daunting climb on dozens of trees today.
03:50 (gentle music)
03:53 One tree yields up to 80 coconuts a year.
03:58 Farmers gather them up for sorting and drying.
04:01 (speaking in foreign language)
04:06 The drier the coconut,
04:08 the easier it is to peel off the inedible outer husk.
04:12 (speaking in foreign language)
04:16 Farmers earn under $5 a day.
04:20 Which is less than the average salary in the country.
04:23 To bridge the gap, Navic Mills told us
04:27 it covers the school fees for the farmer's children.
04:30 They load the coconuts on trucks
04:35 bound for Navic Mills' factory just up the road.
04:38 This is the second sorting stage.
04:47 Imports for coconut oil have surged across the West.
04:51 So to keep pace, the company introduced these saws.
04:54 They doubled the speed at which they could remove
04:58 the fibrous coconut shells.
05:00 (speaking in foreign language)
05:05 But workers have to be careful.
05:12 Flying pieces of coconut shells
05:16 have nicked workers' eyes before.
05:18 (speaking in foreign language)
05:23 In the main room,
05:30 workers still peel the coconuts by hand.
05:33 (speaking in foreign language)
05:37 But peeling knives are no less dangerous.
05:43 (speaking in foreign language)
05:47 Ashoka Kumari peels about 2,500 coconuts in a shift.
06:01 (speaking in foreign language)
06:05 Making less than one cent a coconut,
06:09 Ashoka usually walks away with just under $10 a day.
06:14 Just like farmers,
06:16 it's less than an average salary in Sri Lanka.
06:18 A team of inspectors comes through to check the quality.
06:22 (speaking in foreign language)
06:27 If they see any impurities,
06:29 they'll pull those bad coconuts out.
06:31 (speaking in foreign language)
06:35 Meanwhile, another peeler slices open the fruit
06:38 and dumps out the water.
06:40 (dramatic music)
06:41 From this point on,
06:42 machines will do the bulk of the work.
06:44 Because of their high fat content,
06:46 peeled coconuts spoil fast,
06:48 so the company has to process them quickly.
06:51 (speaking in foreign language)
06:55 The company produces over a dozen coconut products,
07:00 from ice cream and water
07:02 to desiccated coconut and curry-infused milks.
07:07 But oil and regular coconut milk
07:09 are the company's best sellers.
07:12 These machines press virgin coconut oil out of chunks
07:15 and pump it into glass bottles.
07:17 This line is making milk.
07:21 Machines grate the meat into small flakes,
07:24 extract the milk,
07:26 and dispense it into cans.
07:28 At this point,
07:30 workers hop back into the process
07:32 to inspect the sealed cans
07:36 and move the racks into sterilizing machines.
07:39 In Sri Lanka,
07:41 coconut palms are known as the tree of life.
07:45 They can feed a family of five for a century.
07:48 And they're so important,
07:49 it's illegal to cut one down before it matures.
07:53 Coconuts make up roughly 15%
07:55 of the calories Sri Lankans consume
07:58 and earn the country over $800 million every year.
08:02 The story of coconuts in Sri Lanka
08:05 goes back thousands of years.
08:07 It's said they originate from the Western Pacific
08:10 but floated to the Pacific Islands in India
08:12 on ocean currents.
08:14 People here long cherish coconuts
08:16 because one fruit packs so much power.
08:19 It has water,
08:20 fiber to make rope,
08:22 calorie-rich meat,
08:24 oil,
08:25 and a hard shell ideal for crafts.
08:28 It also had religious importance
08:30 and was presented as an offering to Hindu gods.
08:33 In the 16th century,
08:34 merchants brought coconuts to the global stage.
08:37 Spanish and Portuguese explorers coined the term coconut
08:41 from their slang word for head
08:43 because of the fruit's resemblance to a face.
08:46 They spread the fruit across Africa and South America.
08:49 In the early 1900s,
08:51 bakers in the US and the UK
08:52 started using desiccated coconut in their sweets.
08:56 In the 2010s,
08:57 Western countries co-opted coconuts
08:59 as the newest superfood.
09:02 Health gurus and wellness experts
09:05 are looking beyond traditional American foods
09:09 for things that are nutrient-dense.
09:12 Companies and wellness influencers
09:14 claimed the fruit could improve bone health
09:16 and blood sugar,
09:18 promote weight loss,
09:19 and help slow Alzheimer's thanks to its antioxidants.
09:22 Yeah, folks are so into it
09:26 because there's some big health claim attached to it.
09:29 And manufacturers were quick to capitalize.
09:32 Soon, coconut products weighed down shelves
09:35 in health food stores across the US and Europe.
09:38 Its water replaced Gatorade as a post-workout drink,
09:41 and its pulp was turned into healthy ice cream.
09:44 And coconut oil became a popular swap for other cooking oils
09:48 because it has no cholesterol.
09:50 But nutritionists say the promises
09:51 the coconut craze was built upon aren't so straightforward.
09:56 So now all of a sudden it means that coconut oil
09:59 has some magical power, therefore we must all use it,
10:02 when that's not actually the case
10:04 because we don't have the research.
10:06 It's interesting when you look at food databases,
10:08 it's usually foods that everybody's familiar with.
10:11 Foods that are outside of the quote-unquote dominant norm
10:15 are often not as well-researched.
10:18 Coconut water does have lots of electrolytes
10:21 and can be a natural replacement for sports drinks.
10:24 It makes sense.
10:25 All of the places that coconuts grow are tropical climates.
10:29 It's hot, people sweat a lot,
10:30 so it's naturally hydrating for those folks.
10:34 But when it's over-processed or packed full of sugar,
10:37 that benefit goes away,
10:39 and coconut oil is also really fatty.
10:41 87% saturated fat, to be exact, much higher than butter,
10:47 and it has more calories, too.
10:49 In 2017, the American Heart Association
10:52 issued an advisory on saturated fats,
10:54 warning coconut oil could increase bad cholesterol
10:57 and cause cardiovascular events.
10:59 Yeah, if you're eating large amounts of coconut oil
11:05 out of the blue, your body will let you know
11:07 that it may or may not like it.
11:10 But Maya said that doesn't mean
11:11 coconut oil has to be villainized.
11:14 There are some nutrients in coconuts
11:17 that are really beneficial.
11:18 You're gonna get some vitamin C, some potassium, some fiber.
11:22 Remember, it has been used in cuisines around the world
11:25 for thousands of years.
11:26 It's just a matter of how you eat it.
11:28 What I would rather is that people are varying their oils,
11:31 and if the cooking application warrants coconut oil,
11:34 that they use it.
11:35 I think it's completely fine to eat them.
11:37 If it's culturally relevant, go for it.
11:40 Even if it's not and you wanna try it, go for it.
11:43 What I do say to people is don't expect
11:46 a miracle cure from it.
11:48 But all this health confusion hasn't stopped consumers
11:50 from gulping down coconuts,
11:52 allowing Sri Lanka to take its business
11:54 well beyond its shores.
11:56 While the country still eats roughly 75%
11:59 of its own coconut production,
12:01 big companies like this one have popped up
12:03 solely to export the product.
12:06 In just five years, Navic Mills has become
12:08 one of the biggest coconut processors in Sri Lanka.
12:11 Altogether, Navic Mills processes
12:13 30,000 metric tons of coconuts,
12:16 and 95% of it ends up abroad,
12:19 mostly in European and North American countries.
12:23 And the company has gone to incredible lengths
12:25 to keep up with surging demand.
12:27 It had to plant 20,000 more trees
12:30 and hire dozens of new workers.
12:32 Rebuilt a new plant,
12:35 so expanding production line and fixing new machine.
12:40 But coconut farmers aren't the only superfood producers
12:43 feeling this squeeze.
12:45 Foods that originate outside of the US,
12:48 there was a massive peak in interest
12:50 in the last 10 to 15 years.
12:52 There was a time when that was not a thing.
12:55 In the Brazilian Amazon,
12:56 farmers risk their lives to scale thin trees for acai.
13:00 The berries have been a staple food here for centuries,
13:04 but in the last decade, they've gained global fame,
13:07 praised for their antioxidants
13:08 and blended into a valuable frozen pulp.
13:11 While an acai smoothie bowl can go for $15 in New York City,
13:15 Brazilian farmers make as little as 20 cents a pound
13:19 for the raw berries.
13:21 In Peru, producers of quinoa have nearly tripled production
13:24 to keep up with demand from consumers in the US and Europe.
13:28 Soon, French and British farmers
13:31 started growing quinoa themselves
13:33 to grab a share of the profit.
13:34 They flooded the market with too much supply
13:37 and sent Peruvian prices plunging in 2015.
13:42 In Mexico, avocado farmers have formed vigilante groups
13:45 to fight off cartels gunning for their valuable crops.
13:49 Avocado prices jumped 129% in a decade
13:53 when it became a favorite for millennials.
13:55 I'm always wary of the next miracle food.
14:01 Because just like coconut,
14:03 nutritionists are split on if these superfoods
14:06 are actually as powerful as the marketing suggests.
14:09 There is a particular way
14:12 that we talk about wellness in the US,
14:14 and it's really from this Anglo-American,
14:17 Anglo-European perspective.
14:20 And we don't know how to quantify or categorize
14:23 things that fit outside of dominant wellness culture.
14:28 What's left out is the historical
14:30 and cultural context of superfoods
14:32 and the acknowledgement of the people
14:34 left to bear the brunt of our health food obsessions.
14:38 On the other end of every single thing
14:40 that we put into our mouth
14:42 is someone who's worked tirelessly to get it there.
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