The Hindu Business Line : More measures sought to curb arecanut import

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Mangalore Feb. 22 The notification issued by the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) on Wednesday allowing only one port in the country - New Mangalore Port - to import arecanut will help the sector monitoring imports of the commodity and its movement better.

Though the measure to curb the import of the commodity has been well received in the arecanut industry, there is a need to speed up the appointment of a nodal agency to check the quality of the imported commodity and to fix a tariff rate (or floor rate) for imported arecanut. These two measures will help control the import to a great extent and boost domestic market, according officials in the sector.

The President of the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd, Mr S.R. Rangamurthy, told Business Line that notification on canalisation of arecanut import would help monitor the movement of imported arecanut. "The arecanut industry will get the exact details of the quantity imported and the reasons behind the import. We will welcome this notification," he said.

A delegation of arecanut cooperatives had met the Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Shrad Pawar, and the Commerce Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, in New Delhi urging the Union Government to impose a ban on the import of arecanut. In that meeting, the ministers assured the delegation to impose tariff rate on imported arecanut and to allow import only through one port in the country.

NODAL AGENCY

Mr Rangamurthy said a nodal agency should be appointed to monitor the quality of imported arecanut. This move will help to a great extent in controlling the import. Since 1994-95, arecanut is being imported from countries such as Indonesia and Thailand through legal and illegal ways. As the imported arecanuts are of inferior quality, it is essential to have a nodal agency to check their quality and certify them.

TARIFF RATE

Fixation of a tariff rate for imported arecanut will help curb the under-invoicing the shipments. If the tariff rate is fixed at the production cost of the commodity, the importer will have to pay that amount plus the amount at which he imports the commodity. "We are following up both these proposals," he said.

It is to be noted here that total annual production of arecanut stands at around five lakh tonnes in the country. The argument of the cooperatives is that while the domestic production is sufficient to meet the needs of the market, there is no need to import arecanut.

Sources in the cooperative sector said that nearly 50,000 tonnes of arecanut is being imported through legal and illegal means.

The prices of old stocks of white arecanut stood at Rs 84 a kg and the new stocks at Rs 59 to Rs 75 a kg in the Mangalore market on Thursday.

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