Floor price for areca imports hiked by ₹60 a kg

The Directorate-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has increased the minimum price for the import of arecanut by ₹60 a kg.

In a notification issued late on Thursday night, the DGFT increased the minimum price for the import of arecanut from ₹110 a kg to ₹170. This comes 15 months after the DGFT increased the floor price on May 13, 2013.

Thanking Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industries Nirmala Sitharaman and DGFT Pavir Kumar for this notification, K Padmanabha, President of Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd, told BusinessLine that a delegation of the cooperative along with the MPs from arecanut-growing region had submitted a memorandum to the Union Government on August 11 .

The Government has taken swift action on their request, he said. Quoting the government statistics, Padmanabha said arecanut worth $47.08 million was imported to India during January-December 2013 ($46.98 million). Of this, the export of arecanut from Bangladesh to India was $46.13 million ($45.63 million) during the period.

Padmanabha said that the cost of production of arecanut has increased significantly in the past few years. In such a situation, the import of arecanut was affecting the interests of farmers in the country. Terming DGFT’s notification as a timely decision by the Union Government, Srinivasa Achar, president of All-India Areca Growers’ Association, said consumption-based estimate suggests the country produces six lakh tonnes of arecanut a year.

The increase in minimum price for the import will serve as a deterrent for large-scale import of arecanut into the country, he said.

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