An early fruit-bearing coconut variety was released this week by the Ministry of Agriculture as part of efforts to boost coconut production for local and international markets.

The newly released Mua Hybrid Coconut variety was released by the Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy at the Ministry’s Mua Research Station in Taveuni.

While officiating at the event, Minister Reddy said the release of this new variety was a remarkable achievement for the Ministry as the project was constantly affected by natural disasters, taking a toll on the trial area.

“This is a remarkable day and an achievement for the Ministry because this project was halted due to Tropical Cyclone Emi in 2003 as well as during other cyclones because our entire plantation of hybrid trees continued to be destroyed but we were able to revamp it and today signifies the efforts behind our research team here in Mua to get this variety released out to our farmers.

“This will do great service in terms of supporting farmers and exporters in terms of quickly getting the supply of larger volumes of coconut within a shorter period of time, and this Mua variety has been tested to do just that as compared to the Fiji Tall variety. It also has a reasonably long period of production, 40 years or so which isn’t that bad when compared to the Fiji Tall variety,” said Hon. Reddy.

“We want to boost the exports of both dried and green coconuts, there is an enormous demand for coconuts in the export market and we’re also interested in growing the production and exports of green coconuts or bu because the market and demand for bu locally, through our tourism sector, and for the export market is huge,” he added.

“Copra prices have risen, coconut oil prices have also seen a substantial increase in the market and we want to continue to push production and supply into the market,” said Hon. Reddy.

He said some tree crops were long term but if proper research and innovation were done and shorter-term varieties of these tree crops were developed, then the Ministry of Agriculture was doing its role to assist farmers, exporters and contribute to the economy.

The Research Division of the Ministry of Agriculture commenced with coconut breeding work in the early 1980s. Six different types of hybrids were developed and their characteristics evaluated over the years with this new Mua hybrid being the latest.

The Mua hybrid is an early fruit-bearing variety at 3-4 years as compared to the Fiji Tall variety which bears fruit at 5-7 years. It is of medium height reaching 10m in 20 years as compared to Fiji Tall which reaches 20-25 meters. The Mua hybrid has a better yield advantage over Fiji Tall as it recorded 1.4tonnes/hectare of copra. 

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