Overview
KokoNiu aims to be the first to commercially market the somatic embryogenesis technology of coconut plants globally. With the skills and knowledge gained through collaboration with the University of Queensland, the aim is to set up a Coconut Tissue Culture (CTC) Laboratory to mass propagate elite ‘true to type’ coconut plantlets.
Initially KokoNiu is building a Pilot Manufacturing Plant (PMP) to test the technology and fine tune the protocols to prepare to scale up the operation. These initial plantlets will be transported, acclimatised and formed into healthy field growing plants, initially in one of the partner countries to demonstrate the success of the system, end to end and the feasibility of its scale out to other countries in the region.
KokoNiu intends to then build a large scale CTC Laboratory compliant with the Department of Agriculture requirements to produce the millions of plantlets required by the industry. This new CTC Laboratory would enable KokoNiu to import selected coconut tissue from overseas clients to the CTC Laboratory before micropropagating and exporting them to their port of preference, all the while under quarantine conditions.
Output from the CTC Laboratory is expected to start at 500,000 plantlets for the first year and reach three million plantlets by year four of the operation. Starting out in the CTC Laboratory, the tissue culture, once it has formed developing shoots, is transferred to a growth room attached to the CTC Laboratory. They remain there for twelve months while developing further into plantlets before being relocated to a nursery for acclimatisation prior to planting.
