The Hindu Business Line : Campco to explore Pakistan market for arecanut, cocoa

TAKING advantage of the improvements in Indo-Pakistan relationship, the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Ltd (Campco) is planning to explore the Pakistan market for its products.

Addressing presspersons here on Monday, the Campco President, Mr L.N. Kudoor, said there was a good demand for its products in in Pakistan. In this regard, a Campco delegation will visit Pakistan on May 23 to explore the market there.

Mr Kudoor said the cooperative would give thrust for marketing its cocoa products in that country. During 2004-05, it exported 563 tonnes of semi-finished chocolate products worth Rs 8.52 crore to many European countries.

Asked about Campco's plans for arecanut marketing in that country, Mr Nagaraj Shetty, Director, said its consumption in Pakistan was around one lakh tonnes a year. But the major problem in marketing was due to availability of cheap arecaut from countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

While Indian arecanut is marketed there at Rs 65 a kg, other countries sell it at Rs 40 a kg. In spite of that, the cooperative exported around 10 containers of arecanut to Pakistan last year, he said.

"The opening up of railway and bus routes to Pakistan should help us in marketing arecanut there," he said.

On the impact of value-added tax (VAT) on arecanut, Mr Kudoor said it should help stabilise the volatile market. Earlier, sales tax on arecanut was 16.5 per cent in West Bengal and 12 per cent in Andhra Pradesh. Under VAT system, the tax rate is 4 per cent. However, the major arecanut markets such as Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh have not yet implemented VAT. "We hope that arecanut market will stabilise with the introduction of VAT," he said.

During 2004-05, Campco purchased 4.09-lakh quintals of arecanut worth Rs 285 crore from growers and marketed 3.93 quintals worth Rs 293 crore.

During the period, the cooperative purchased cocoa worth Rs 21.40 crore from growers and marketed 974.26 tonnes of chocolate worth Rs 11.65 crore and 1,955 tonnes of semi-finished cocoa products worth Rs 29.06 crore. Apart from this, it collected Rs 2.26 crore processing charges from Nestle and Cadburys for producing 2287.87 tonnes of chocolate. The cooperative had registered an accumulated profit of Rs 11.16 crore, he said.

Mr Kudoor termed the cooperative's initiatives to market arecanut in 1 kg, 5 kg and 10 kg packets through retail agents a success. Enthused by this, Campco was planning to improve the market for these products in Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

The cooperative, which is looking at the alternative uses of arecanut, has applied for patents for some of the arecanut products under the brand name `Pooga Trim' and `Pooga Syrup'. Stating that extensive research was being done on the medicinal values of arecanut, Mr Kudoor said these products would help control blood pressure and diabetes.

The Karnataka and Kerala governments have appointed Campco as the nodal agency for purchasing arecanut under the market intervention scheme. The Karnataka Government had released Rs 4 crore to purchase white and red varieties of arecanut. In Karnataka, the cooperative began purchasing arecanut under the scheme on April 25, he said.

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