An Australian invention is helping to change lives in a remote part of the South Pacific
A village worker dries the flesh of a coconut before it is hand-pressed into oil. Source: SBS News/Omar Dabbagh
Omar Dabbagh reports from Honiara, Solomon Islands
Under the hot sun of the Solomon Islands capital Honiara, the team at Kokonut Pacific are hard at work.
The coconut processing centre has been in operation for 25 years.
The venture aims to extract and utilise as much from a coconut as possible to use in a range of products. Soaps and oils are its signature items for sale, created using a coconut press, which makes oil from scratch within an hour.
The technology is an Australian invention, requiring half a dozen people to operate different stations. The coconut is first sliced, its flesh then ground and dried over high heat, before the oil is collected, filtered, and sent for packaging.