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The Centre has increased the minimum price for the import of arecanut by ₹89 a kg.
In a notification dated January 17, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Department of Commerce, has increased the minimum price for import of arecanut from ₹162 a kg to ₹251 a kg.
Farmers, who were expressing concerns over the import of arecanut, are expecting a positive impact of this move on the domestic market.
Thanking Union Minister of State for Commerce, Nirmala Sitharaman, for this move, SR Satishchandra, President of Central arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco), told BusinessLine that this is a right decision by the Centre, at the right time. This comes when the arrivals of the new stock of white arecanut has just begun in the domestic market.
Referring to the previous experiences of the cooperative, he said the hike in the minimum price for import of arecanut help improve the price of the commodity in the domestic market.
Some participants in the domestic market said that the DGFT move could help boost the prices of new stocks by 10-15 per cent in the days to come. The new stocks are trading in the range of ₹180-190 a kg now.
P Venugopal, one of the growers from Puttur taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, said that since the minimum price for arecanut import remains above the domestic price, it would help growers. The market sentiments will also improve when there is a decline in the import of the commodity.
On the estimated crop yield during this season, he opined that arecanut production is 25-30 per cent below the previous year’s production during this season.
In an answer to the Member of Parliament from Dakshina Kannada, Nalin Kumar Kateel, in Lok Sabha on July 25 last year, Nirmala Sitharaman had stated that India imported 67,824 tonnes of arecanut during 2015-16. However, the total domestic arecanut production during that year was 7 lakh tonnes.
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