How to Make Money from the Cocopeat Manufacturing

How to make money from the cocopeat manufacturing Business

In the present day, everyone is focussing on the usage of bio-degradable products to protect the environment. Even the school students are inventing many useful things from the agricultural wastes, for example, a girl who is studying 7th class has discovered the filtering material from the corn cobs. By going through all these things I just recalled a saying from my grandma ‘a coconut tree employs at least 5 members’. I wondered by her saying and then started thinking of what products are useful. I understood that every part of the coconut tree can be used. While coming to the coconut husks, I just wanted to know how these can be used. But later I realized that these husks on processing give huge profits as they produce coir and cocopeat or coco-dust. Now, let’s get into the details of a cocopeat manufacturing business in India and how to make money from this business.

Ideas to make money from the cocopeat manufacturing business

Now the first question arises ‘in what way cocopeat or coco-dust useful?’ Cocopeat is an eco-friendly, natural, and renewable resource that is made from coconut husks. Cocopeat is a scientifically proven natural alternative to mined peat moss. Therefore, using cocopeat helps to slow down the peat extraction from environmentally sensitive swamps worldwide.

Cocopeat is a multipurpose natural medium used for growing a large variety of plants. It has a unique property; the cocopeat can be reused several times as a growing medium or to plant the samplings or the seedlings. The shelf-life period of cocopeat is more than 4 years, whereas for the peat moss is only 6-12 months.

What is cocopeat? 

Cocopeat is a natural fiber that is produced from coconut husks. The cocopeat is a by-product that can be collected during the extraction of coconut fiber from husks. Cocopeat is an approved 100% natural growing medium for plants. This cocopeat is dried in the natural sun and is also processed to produce different items namely cocopeat tablets, cocopeat bricks, cocopeat blocks, coco peat briquettes, etc.

The powder form of cocopeat is also referred to as coco soil. Coco soil helps the plant to have stronger roots as it is a porous and well-drained medium. Thus Coco soil makes it an excellent growing medium for hydroponics.

Why cocopeat has high demand in the market

Due to the following properties, it has a high demand in the market. These include-

• Cocopeat is light in weight, easy to prepare and in fact, it is very easy to handle. It can be reused for up to 4 years as a growing medium.
• The cocopeat is resistant to all the bacterial and fungal growth, due to its physical and biochemical properties.
• Cocopeat disintegrates slowly, as it begins to break down when it crosses ten years, thus providing long-term benefits as a growing media for the farmers, and in the nurseries, etc.
• Cocopeat pH ranges from 5.2 to 6.8 which is slightly acidic to neutral. This makes it to be a great mix with alkaline garden soil.
• Cocopeat can store and release nutrients to plants for an extended period.
• It helps for healthy root development as it has great oxygenation properties.
• Cocopeat can be combined as a medium with many of the growing media like soil and manure so that it can be used as a mixture or even as a stand-alone product.
• Cocopeat is a perfect soil conditioner that can retain moisture level up to eight times its volume and is completely organic.
• Cocopeat is uniform and consistent in texture, hence it will be easy to handle. Unlike soil, it does not form any clumps. It just stays in the given shape with a fine powder texture.

Where to use cocopeat

Cocopeat can be used in different forms of the medium it can be used either in a mixed form or in a pure form. It is used in the following ways-

• Cocopeat makes an excellent sowing medium and is used to sow the seeds of large varieties of vegetables and even the seasonal flowers in the seedling trays.
• Cocopeat also makes a perfect rooting medium. Hence the stem cuttings can be inserted in cocopeat induces root production.
• Cocopeat forms a very good medium for soilless gardening and especially for hydroponic farming.
• Cocopeat is a very essential ingredient and best served as a potting medium like pot-o-mix and organic veggie-mix.
• Potting mixture added with cocopeat is the best suited for growing indoor plants, dish gardens, cactus and succulents, terrariums, and even in hanging baskets.

Market potential to make money from the cocopeat manufacturing business

The cocopeat has great demand in the national as well as the international markets because of its uses. As per the market analysis report, it also states by 2025 the product gets the highest demand in both export and import business. It also has a great revenue share in the market as per the report of Cocopeat manufacturing sites, production, the capacity, ex-factory price, the revenue, and the market share is going high in the global market. There are many international buyers of cocopeat which include Espafibra of Spain, Dutch Plantin of Netherlands, Steadygrow of Australia, and Bombunova of Spain.

License and permits required to start the cocopeat business in India

These are the list of licenses required to start the cocopeat production business in India. These include-

1. Registration of Firm
2. GST Registration
3. Trade License
4. MSME/SSI Registration
5. EPF Registration
6. ESI Registration
7. Trade Mark
8. IEC code

How to start a cocopeat manufacturing business to make good money

In case if you miss this: How to Start a Car Wash Business with Low Capital.

Cocopeat making business is a very easy process. The cocopeat disc is a bio-degradable and eco-friendly product. It makes an excellent soil conditioner and has a high water retention capacity. Cocopeat disc helps in the quick germination of the seeds which are sown. Because of these uses, cocopeat is used extensively in the nurseries as a growing medium for plants.

Because of the above number of uses and the market potential, the cocopeat production can be selected as the best business to start with.

Below are the steps that explain the production of the cocopeat at a small-scale.

Step 1: Collect coconut husks from the coconut shops or the farmers, etc. and make sure to store them in a clean place.

Step 2: After that pull-out fibers and dry them completely. Then chop the fibers or cut them into smaller pieces with the help of sharp scissors or cutter which are used to trim the branches. Now cut them into still finer pieces

Step 3: In this step, you need to grind them into a fine powder. The coco fiber will be separated as fluff after grinding.

Step 4: Now separate the fibers from the cocopeat powder with the help of a sieve. You can now manually remove the fibers from the top of the sieve. You can use a good stainless steel soil sieve for separating the cocopeat from the fiber.

Step 5: Now the extracted peat is washed thoroughly with water to remove the impurities such as salts and other radical ions. Washing also helps in decreasing the electrical conductivity of the peat.

Step 6: In the next step you need to soak the extracted peat in water for about an hour. After soaking for one hour, squeeze out excess water.

Step 7: Fill the extracted peat in the containers according to the shape which you prefer for either bricks or discs. You can also put the cocopeat in the pots as sell them as a cocopeat filled pots.

Step 8: Now dry the shapes directly in the sunlight for a day or two.

Packing of the cocopeat

Now comes the next step, i.e., the packaging you can simply pack them in the mud pots and sell them or use some attractive ideas for packing.

You should not miss this: How to Make Money from Hibiscus Oil Extraction.

The cost involved preparing the cocopeat

You will need some amount as working capital to invest in the production of the cocopeat business. The major cost includes buying the machinery required. If you want to start it on a smaller scale then you can use the normal grinders for grinding the coco fibers extracted from the husks. But the separation of the fibers from the husk will be a difficult task. Hence it is better to buy the equipment required to start the business even though it involves Rs. 3 to 5 lakhs. The other cost includes the purchasing of the raw materials and the cost for registration, licensing, etc. The final cost includes packaging costs. Hence to start a cocopeat making business, you need to invest an amount of Rs. 5-8 lakhs.

The price of cocopeat in the market

In the market, the retail price of 1 Kg of cocopeat is about Rs. 80/kg. However, if you are planning to sell in the wholesale market, you may sell for cheaper prices. But make a note that you need to reduce the price based upon the expenses. You need to divide them accordingly and fix the sale price.

Profits from cocopeat making business

You can expect the profits from Rs. 8 to 10 lakhs per year for a small scale setup. You can expect huge profits for large scale set-ups.

Financial assistance from banks for cocopeat production business in India

You can also get financial assistance for cocopeat production in India for MSME units which is available from different institutions. The important ones are listed- Coir Board, Govt of India, Commercial/Regional Rural/Co-operative Banks, SIDBI: Small Industries Development Bank of India (refinance and direct lending), SFCs/SIDCs: State Financial Corporations /State Industrial Development Corporations.

The conclusion of the manufacturing of cocopeat to make good money

It is an excellent small-scale business idea to start and earn right away. To reduce any input material cost and if you own the land, you can start Coconut Production.