New stocks of white arecanut rule above ₹200 a kg

With the arrivals started for the new stocks of white arecanut, farmers are seeing a positive trend this year. The new stocks have opened above ₹200 a kg in the market this season.

Terming it as an encouraging trend, Ramesh Kaintaje, a farmer from Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada, told BusinessLine that the season for new stocks of white arecanut opened in the range of ₹130-145 a kg in 2013 and ₹165-180 in 2014. Private traders are offering more than ₹220 for the new stocks during the opening of the current season, he said.

(New stocks of white arecanut start arriving to the market during Diwali festival. The stocks that are considered new till then will become old stocks. Old stocks command good price compared to the new ones.)

Kaintaje said that the increase in the minimum price for import of arecanut from ₹110 to ₹162 a kg in June this year has helped the domestic growers, besides boosting the price.

Raveesh Hegde, General Manager of the Sirsi-based Totagars’ Cooperative Sale Society (TSS) Ltd, said that the increase in the cost of cultivation over the years is one of the reasons for this hike.

K Mahesh, a grower from Adyanadka village in Dakshina Kannada district, said that the production of white arecanut (which is coming as new stocks now) is up by 10-15 per cent this year. He cautioned that this may have an impact on the price when the present new stocks become old stocks during the same period next year.

Kaintaje said that the due to the decline in the rainfall this year, arecanut crop is ready for harvest early. He said that new stocks of arecanut were ready during end of November last year in his farm. However, this year the stocks are ready a month in advance. Other farmers also expressed such views.

Suresh Bhandary, Managing Director of Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd, told BusinessLine that the arrival of both old and new stocks of arecanut to the market is thin till now. Now the cooperative is getting around 20 per cent of what it was getting in the previous year.

He opined that the farmers are holding back the stocks expecting a higher price in the days to come.

Sridhar Bhide, President of Mangaluru Agriculturists Sahakari Sangha, urged the farmers to release the commodity in regular intervals so that there will not be glut in the market. This will help stabilise the market to a large extent, he added.

The country produces around 5.5 lakh tonnes of arecanut a year. Of this, Karnataka’s share is around 40 per cent. Srinivasa Achar, President of All-India Arecanut Growers’ Association, said that generally white and red arecanuts are produced in the ratio of 60:40.