Booming business of the booty-ful nut of the Seychelles

It is the world's largest seed, and with a shape suggestive of a woman's hips and myths of love-making powers, the coco de mer is an icon of the Seychelles.

With a 10-kilogramme (22-pound) coconut wedged between his feet, experienced nut cutter Christophe Bristol uses a mallet and wood chisel to extract the precious kernel from the shell in a warehouse on the Indian Ocean archipelago.

Every bit is valuable.

"The kernel is sold at a very high price in China," said Bristol, hammering at the curvaceous contours of the nut, which features on the Seychelles' coat of arms.

But on the islands, the "double coconut" is more commonly called in French "coco fesse", or the "coconut buttock".

For centuries, myths and mysteries grew up around the nut -- and it was exploited to the brink of extinction.

The impressive coconut palms grows only on two Seychelles islands, Praslin and Curieuse.

"People have a superstition; they grind it and put it in alcohol like whisky, then they drink it and it gives them strength," Bristol said. "That's the myth."
"To open and empty a coco de mer takes around 20 minutes," said Bristol, explaining how the extreme hardness of the outer shell is a tough nut to crack. "It's much more difficult than a regular coconut."
"It is harder than most types of wood."