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The Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd has initiated more steps to help the growers during the lockdown. The cooperative, which began procuring arecanut from member-growers at select centres from April 13, has decided to increase the procurement price by ₹5 a kg.
Suresh Bhandary, Managing Director of Campco, told BusinessLine that the cooperative has decided to increase the procurement price for new stocks of white arecanut from ₹250 a kg to ₹255/kg, and old stocks of white arecanut from ₹275/kg to ₹280/kg with effect from April 27.
It may be mentioned here that the lockdown in the country had created panic among arecanut growers. There were also reports of some private traders buying arecanut at around ₹150/kg during the initial days of the lockdown.
Campco’s decision to buy arecanut from April 13 encouraged other arecanut cooperatives to begin the process of procurement. Private traders were also forced to procure arecanut at the base price of ₹250/kg that was set by Campco.
Quantity hiked
Apart from the above measure, the cooperative has also decided to increase the quantity of arecanut procured from growers. Following the implementation of the lockdown, each grower-member was allowed to sell 100 kg of arecanut a month to the cooperative. Bhandary said each grower-member can sell 200 kg of arecanut to the cooperative with effect from April 29.
Considering the directives issued by the government on social distancing, the cooperative had limited the number of procurements at every branch in Karnataka at 20 members a day. Now the cooperative will allow procurement from 30 members in a day in its branches.
He said the cooperative has taken these decisions to provide stability to the market, and to cater to the needs of farmers during situations like this.
Arecanut is the major source of income for many farmers with small and marginal land holdings in many districts of Karnataka and northern part of Kerala.
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