Coco-Nut

India has a coconut development board that is a part of the agricultural ministry. Their main aim is to diversify the products that can be generated from the coconut along with increasing awareness of the products and the market share and provide funds for research to prevent disease and rotting of the crop.

For this mission, minimal processing of tender coconut water was developed in Kerela to ensure that coconut water is kept fresh for days after it has been detached from the tree. In Bangalore this service is provided by Coco Fresh to schools, corporate offices and hospitals. Their mobile dispensing machines are unsurprising very similar to the ones that were created by Fruit Hut Beverages for their brand Coco Fresco in Hyderabad. 

These mobile units seem very much in place in the synthetic malls that cover Indian cities, and the ‘streets’ in IT campuses, they provide employment and they ensure that a product that was essentially assumed to be available on the street has space in a completely different setting with a look to match the quality and ‘standards’ of that space. Coco Fresco has a series of drinks based on coconut water to create a beverage market for the simple coconut water and has created an exportable product and business. 

The irony is that, though they have while they try to diversify the market there are very few steps taken to keep the current coconut vendors safe in business. This is the fallacy of the system that ‘development boards’ go about to realise their mission. They eradicate existing working systems and introduce new systems rather than developing both simultaneously.

On the website of Coco Fresh and Coco Fresco it is rather amusing to read about the hygiene and quality that dispensing machines provide over the street side vendor. The street vendor uses a machete to slice the top of the coconut and pierce the shell just enough to insert a straw. The most unhygienic part of the ritual might be the straw (cheap plastic) and many opt to drink the coconut water directly from the shell. The meat is eaten post drinking the coconut water. The coconut shell is returned to the vendor and he slits it, forms a spatula from the shell to scoop the meat. The coconut is the container and then the crockery and cutlery. 

The movement of the vendor and the ritual of drinking and eating is at the most a 7 minute process when he is busy but it is mesmerising especially if the local vendor has the inclination towards showmanship, swinging his machete seamlessly, precisely and artistically across the shell of the coconuts through imaginary dashed lines. He is blessed as his product is healthy, appropriate for all ages and this is part of his aura. He is the medicine man of food, respected and proud. 

A coconut vendor is rarely mobile though it would be common to find him with a collection of mobile units. Usually armed with a tempo to carry the surplus coconuts and the waste shells, a pushcart to stock the products for view and baskets to collect the waste he waits at corners. At the end of the day, the coconut waste is dried and sold as fuel.

He is in essence a small business enterprise. The coconut vendor in Cooke Town has an agent in Mysore who buys coconuts from local farmers and then delivers the coconuts to him and possibly others in Bangalore. Fruit Hut Beverages has farmers or their agents delivering the coconuts to their warehouses in Hyderabad where their mobile dispensers are stocked. Both businesses collect the waste and sell them for further processing. Some coconut vendors employ staff to increase the area of business similar to the coconut corporates who employ people to operate their dispensers. 

I could imagine a system where the Coconut Development Board would issue a series identity cards bearing their mark to ensure that coconut vendors are treated as the business that they are and not continually harassed by police officers who like to exploit the anonymous in the name of city development. 

Also, I have noticed that in the city women rarely sell coconut water contrary to the Harry Belafonte song (it maybe because of the labour required)  maybe the Coconut Board can introduce motorised push carts for for them at low costs that they can wheel them from their home to their workplace.

Downsize me!

Carbophobics (fear of carbohydrates) would possibly not visit Javed Bhai the greengrocer on Milton street adjoining Basha superstore but they would definitely be noticed by him while they walk past him uncomfortably. During my 45 minute interview, one Friday afternoon with him, he waved and greeted continuously, gave directions and shared views and sometimes sold fruit. Bananas were the most sold during that time, being the cheapest and often in singles.

The consummate salesperson, he told me about his efforts (5am-noon at the wholesale city market to get the best quality fruits), geographical origin of his fruits (from America, China, New Zealand and across India) stressing on his experience to gauge the quality of a fruit by looking at it and his memory for all his customers preferences. 

His shop is a rather simple typical street greengrocer: stepped counters that pour in and out of the simple hollow semi-permanent shell, boxes of fruits against bright tinsel paper. One of the more unique attachments was the wooden door that stood forlornly across the street, that would be fitted to the semi permanent shell at closing time.

Approach to Javed Bhai's shop on Milton Street, Cooke Town.

Javed Bhai describing the variety of products in his shop

Street (stationary and mobile) greengrocers are very intuitive to the food habits and economic background of the localities that they cater to, as every locality is composed of people from different parts of the country with their own specific culinary requirements. Services that they offer is delivery, on order and most importantly neighbourhood security. 

In India, it is not difficult to buy small quantities of food products. The smaller the shop the greater the chance of buying individual pieces of any food. At some bakeries it is possible to buy a single cookie or even parts of a loaf of bread. This is the downsize me! phenomenon, possibly because of the low incomes, precise budgets, and lack of refrigeration in many houses. 

This is a service that is especially catered to by mobile greengrocers more than street side greengrocers (though they make exceptions depending on the produce). They will slice a watermelon, papaya, pineapple, jackfruit and you can buy what you need. This is what I believe ensures that fruits and vegetables are consumed a bit more democratically across the country. This is also a service I believe that could keep obesity and related health disorders down if made into an international health policy. 

Single distribution network for products as described by street vendors (stationary and mobile). WIP diagram as more retail points are studied

The Japanese do something similar, packaging individual biscuits in an endless expanse of plastic. Could we design food dispensers that somehow allow one to choose the quantity, the packaging and still retain hygiene standards?