The Hindu Business Line : Campco enters into pact with Amul

Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Co-operative (Campco) Ltd has entered into an agreement with Gujarat-based Amul to sell around 1,200 tonnes of industrial cocoa products to the latter.

Revealing this at a press conference here on Tuesday, Mr S.R. Rangamurthy, Campco President, said the co-operative would supply cocoa powder, cocoa butter, and white and bitter chocolates to Amul.

The agreement has already been signed and the first consignment of 10 tonnes of industrial cocoa products has been despatched to Amul.

Under the agreement, Campco will supply 25 tonnes of cocoa butter and 50 tonnes of cocoa powder to Amul every month. Apart from this, 20 tonnes of white and bitter chocolates will be shipped to Amul every month.

Plans for DK factory

In all, the co-operative is planning to market 3,000 tonnes of industrial cocoa products from its chocolate factory at Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district.

He said Campco is planning to crush 4,500 tonnes of cocoa beans at the factory.

The co-operative purchased wet cocoa beans worth Rs 11.12 crore to the tune of 53,216 quintals and dry cocoa beans worth Rs 2.94 crore to the tune of 3,564 quintals during 2005-06.

The factory at Puttur manufactured 1,137 tonnes of finished products and 1,466 tonnes of semi-finished products. He said the factory undertook the job work of crushing cocoa beans and earned a processing charge of Rs 2.46 crore.

"The overall viability of the chocolate factory improved a lot during the current year compared to the previous year," he said.

To meet the requirement of cocoa in the country, the co-operative distributed nearly 78,000 hybrid cocoa seedlings at a subsidised rate of Rs 3 a seedling during the last fiscal. It will continue the distribution of cocoa seedling during 2006-07 also, he said.