Red arecanut price soars as stocks dwindle

The price of red arecanut has crossed ₹330-a-kg mark.

Cooperatives involved in the marketing of the red variety of arecanut attribute this increase to the decline in the production.

Raveesh Hegde, General Manager of the Sirsi-based Totagars’ Cooperative Sale Society (which markets arecanut), told Business Line that production had come down in Shimoga and Davangere districts, the major red arecanut-growing areas in Karnataka, because of fruit rot disease in plantations during the monsoon last year.

Growers are now getting around ₹330 for the red variety against₹150 a kg during the same period a year ago, he said.

(There are two varieties of arecanut based on the processing. White arecanut is prepared by drying the ripe arecanut in sun and removing husk from it.

Red arecanut is prepared by husking green arecanut, and then boiling and drying it.

White arecanut is produced in coastal Karnataka and some parts of Kerala, red arecanut is produced in Shimoga, Davangere and Chitradurga districts of Karnataka. Red variety is mainly used in the manufacture of paan masala, and white variety for paan beeda preparation.)

Stating that the stock of red arecanut is lower with growers also, Hegde said the expectation is that the price of the red variety may reach around ₹400-a-kg mark by July.

Suresh Bhandary, Managing Director of the Mangalore-based Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco), said the illegal import of arecanut has been curtailed due to the tightening of borders during elections.

There are also reports that Indonesia, which exports arecanut, is facing a crop failure this year.

All these factors are leading to the increase in the price of the commodity, he said.

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