The Hindu Business Line : Campco sets terms for arecanut procurement

THE Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Co-operative (Campco) Ltd has sought assurance from the State Government on some of the issues in the procurement of red variety of arecanut.

Malnad districts in the State are the major markets of red variety of arecanut.

It has said that the Government officials concerned should analyse the quality of arecanut before procurement, and the State Government has to arrange for money.

Campco has also asked the Government to bear the loss, if any, in the procurement of red arecanut.

This was disclosed by the Campco President, Mr B. Nagaraja Shetty, here on Tuesday evening. It may be recalled here that the Karnataka Agriculture Minister, Mr H.K. Patil, in one of his press conferences in February, had said that Campco would procure five quintals of red variety of arecanut from each farmer at the rate of Rs 8,500 a quintal.

Then the price had crashed to less than Rs 5,600 a quintal.

Mr Shetty said that the Governments of Kerala and Karnataka had welcomed the procurement of white variety of arecanut under the market intervention scheme when its price came down.

Terming imported arecanut as "unfit for human consumption", he said that some containers of arecanut from Indonesia have landed at Chennai, Kochi, and Mumbai ports.

Asked about Campco's overseas market, he said that more orders are likely from the Afghanistan market.

Campco exported 23 tonnes of arecanut worth Rs 20 lakh recently.

Campco, which has an annual turnover of Rs 350 crore, purchased 4.5 lakh quintal of arecanut from farmers and sold them. Mr Shetty said that the organisation has set a target of procuring five lakh tonnes of arecanut for this year.

Apart from arecanut market, Campco is also making progress in cocoa market. He said that there has been 46 per cent increase in the demand for cocoa industrial products of Campco.

For the finished cocoa products the demand is on a par with that of the last year, he added.

More Stories on : Co-operatives | Spices & Condiments | Karnataka

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Finolex to cash in on drip irrigation thrust in TN — Hikes production capacity expecting demand

Rubber dull on poor buying

Tea trouble

Tea centre in Chennai to promote Nilgiris varieties

Icrisat signs pact with TVS farm institute

Gains from cotton-jowar rotation system: Study

COD identified as best tender coconut variety

Marginal fall in pepper despite thin arrivals

Campco sets terms for arecanut procurement