Re: Best places & prices to get virgin coconut oil: Tropical Traditions

The price you quote for Wilderness Family is WITHOUT shipping. Shipping a 1-gallon pail of coconut oil averages around $15.00, so this is "insignificant."

As far as these being "small companies", they are simply distributors: they don't make the coconut oil. Coconut Supreme gets their oil from Quality First, which mass-produces its oil. This is one of the sources of Wilderness Family as well.

Also, your information about coconuts is incorrect. ALL coconuts are harvested, it is NOT a wild tree. They do grow everywhere, even along side busy roads as you see in Florida. Tropical Traditions is the only company that does not simply distribute its coconut oil, but produces it as well. The owner is a Filipina who grew up in the Philippines, and most of the small-scale farmers live in the area where she grew up. The oil is not mass-produced, but made by a traditional way that has been used for hundreds of years in the Philippines. This process is also USDA certified by a third party organization, not by a local one in the Philippines.