White arecanut prices jump ₹50/kg during lockdown

The prices of white arecanut have jumped ₹50 a kg to over ₹300 during lockdown in the past one week.

At a ‘Meet the Press’ programme organised by the Dakshina Kannada Working Journalists’ Union on Tuesday, SR Satishchandra, President of Campco (Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative) Ltd, said the cooperative has paid remunerative prices to farmers inspite of markets coming to a halt during the lockdown.

He said Campco had set a base price of ₹250 a kg for new stocks of white arecanut when it started buying the commodity on April 13. But there were no buyers.

Taking advantage of this, some private traders tried to bring down the price of the new stocks of white arecanut to ₹120-150 a kg. However, Campco’s initiatives to set a base price brought stability to the market and prevented panic selling by farmers, he said.

Crosses ₹300-mark

Suresh Bhandary, Managing Director of Campco, said that for the first time the new stocks of white arecanut are trading at ₹300 a kg during June. The price was around ₹280 in the same period last year.

The Uttar Pradesh market, which gets significant share of imported arecanut, was left with nil stock during the lockdown due to complete stoppage of imports during the lockdown and the drying up of stocks in the consuming markets led to this growth, he said.

Bhandary said the market for new stocks of white arecanut may stabilise at ₹300 a kg.

Stating that any price above that level leads to the import of arecanut, he said importers get the commodity at around ₹260 after paying all the duties.

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