If the initiatives by the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd materialise, then the Chinese will start chewing mouth fresheners with arecanut-based ingredients from India.

K Padmanabha, President of Campco Ltd, told BusinessLine that a Chinese firm has shown interest to import around 12,000 tonnes of tender arecanut. The firm – Kou Wei Wang Ji Tuan You Xian Gongsi of Hu Nan province in China – wants to prepare mouth fresheners from the peel of the tender arecanut, he said. That means farmers need not wait for the processing of the commodity before releasing it to the market.

Exports, output It may be mentioned here that India is the major arecanut producer in the world. According to an estimate, the country produces around 5.5 lakh tonnes of arecanut every year. The export of Indian arecanut to other countries is meagre compared to the import figures.

According to the Commerce Ministry figures, India exported 3,470 tonnes of arecanut to various countries in 2013-14, and 7,057 tonnes in the first nine months of 2014-15. If materialised, the new initiative of Campco will provide an opportunity to export around 12,000 tonnes of tender arecanut to a single country.

Imports up One of the main grouses of farmers and arecanut cooperatives was the import of arecanut.

The Commerce Ministry statistics show that India imported 73,953 tonnes of arecanut in 2011-12, 99,701 tonnes in 2012-13 and 80,478 tonnes in 2013-14. The import went up to 79,005 tonnes in the first nine months of 2014-15. On June 8, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued a notification increasing the minimum import price for the commodity from ₹110 a kg to ₹162 a kg.

The DGFT notification had infused some amount of hopes among arecanut growers in the country. A positive development on the Chinese move to import tender arecanut to that country will further boost their hopes.

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