THE Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority (Fama) is importing three million coconuts from Indonesia this month and next month to meet the demand for the Hari Raya celebrations.

This is almost a 100 per cent increase compared with the 700,000 to one million coconuts imported per month, for the first seven months of this year.

The increase will stabilise the price of coconuts in the local market and ensure that demand is met during festivals.

Local supply of coconuts can only cope with 50 per cent of demand.

Fama senior director for fresh produce trade Lee Yoon Keong said besides importing coconuts from Indonesia, the authority is bringing in 100,000 coconuts from Sabah and Sarawak as standby stock.

“Most of the Indonesian coconuts are imported from Bengkalis, Palembang, Tanjung Samak and Guntong.