The Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK), known to produce top-graded cashew nuts on mass scale, is facing hurdles in auctioning the produce apparently for want of competitive bids from cashew processing units.
The unforeseen situation has emerged after the PCK deferred the auctioning process of cashew nuts twice in a row, the recent being the one scheduled on Thursday at the cashew procurement unit at Muliyar that falls under the Plantation Corporation’s Kasaragod division.
The auctioning process, held on August 8 at the Muliyar unit, in which six bidders took part had been deferred as the maximum bid was ₹122 a kg against the previous year’s price quoted in the range of ₹150-155, informed sources here said.
However, the public sector unit was yet again driven to defer the process planned on Thursday as the lone bidder from Kollam quoted ₹105 a kg when the open market offered up to ₹145 a kg in the initial harvest period for small-time cultivators.
Subsequently, the farmers were offered prices in the range of ₹130-120 days after commencing the monsoon season.
Reports reaching here attributed the reduction in prices to lack of scientific procurement units, a charge refuted by the PCK
official here.
The Corporation manages a vast stretch of cashew estates spread across 11 panchayats and has been auctioning the produce to highest bidders for the nut collection and its sale over the last few years.