In the early eighties, entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka invested a great deal of money in researching coir dust locally known as kohubath, to find a useful, meaningful outlet for this apparent waste material. The result of this experimentation was the manufacture of a coir briquette as a alternative fuel source. This however, did not prove economically feasible for use of fuel to generate heat, as the cost of the compression costs of manufacturing the briquette was an inhibitor factor.
THE HUSK – OUR CORE BUSINESS
The fibrous husk (mesocarp) of the coconut is soaked in pits for softening and then beaten to extract the coir fibre used in the manufacture of ropes, door mats, upholstery, mattresses, car seats, carpets, insulation, bristle brooms and brushes.
Only the residual dust or Coir Fibre Pith had little use, if at all, and was consequently dumped as a waste in unseemly heaps, that piled up like hillocks. That was ………. Until our group took the initiative to convert this into a valuable product that would revolutionise the coconut industry as well as the entire horticultural industry of the world!
THE PITH AND THE CORE OF THE COIR FIBRE PITH HISTORY
Today, the successful pioneering effort of the Wespac (PVT) Ltd has uniquely enabled it to maintain its market leadership for Coir Fibre Pith & husk Chip product exports to serve not only the exacting needs of Coir Fibre Pith as a growing medium for professional greenhouse growers and intensive agriculture but also to satisfy the whims and fancies of horticulturists and floriculturists engrossed in the cultivation of exotica for profit and pleasure.
COIR FIBRE PITH & HUSK SUBSTRATES manufactured and exported by Wespac (PVT) Ltd., Sri Lanka blazed its way into the international horticultural market in 1986 as an exciting alternative to peat – until then, the standard growing medium for raising tropical exotica in greenhouse conditions. Greenhouses simulate tropical climate characteristics artificially, and play a vital scientific role in research into plant, tree, food and fodder crops in botanical institutes in the West.
Until the advent of the Sri Lankan product; trade named COCOPEAT and COCOHUSK CHIPS came into existence, sphagnum and sedge peats, rockwool and perlite were the standard growing medium in hydroponics – the greenhouse technique where plants are grown without soil nutrients and moisture for seed germination and plant growth are provided by mineral solutions sprayed to the root systems, under controlled irrigation using spray, drip systems.
Since then, hydroponic techniques have been highly developed and perfected as tools in optimizing space utilization, cost cutting and yield optimization. Our products too have kept abreast or ahead of the ever increasing demand for a reliable array of professional substrates with uninterrupted supply.
