The Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Ltd. (CAMPCO), Mangaluru has further hiked the prices of ‘chali’ variety of arecanut and will resume daily procurement of the produce from Wednesday.
The cooperative had stopped arecanut procurement since the lockdown. It resumed procuring ‘chali’ (or white arecanut) thrice a week from April 13.
“Since the lockdown restrictions have been relaxed to a certain extent, the cooperative is moving ahead towards normalcy in purchases. There will be regular purchases of white variety of arecanut at all branches on all days without any restriction in the limit of purchases and without token system from May 6,” S.R. Satishchandra, president of the cooperative, said on Tuesday.
Managing Director M. Suresh Bhandary told The Hindu that the price of ‘chali’ for ‘hosa adike’ (fresh arrivals) has been hiked from ₹255 to ₹270 a kg. and that of ‘hale adike’ (old stocks) has been hiked from ₹280 to ₹295 a kg. from Monday onwards.
Since the cooperative resumed the arecanut procurement about 21 days ago, it has hiked the prices of arecanut by ₹20 a kg.. It had resumed the procurement with a base price of ₹250 and ₹275 for the two grades, respectively. Later it hiked it by ₹5 a kg. for both the grades.
Now the price of ‘hosa adike’ has crossed the rate which existed when lockdown began 41 days ago. Then the price for the grade had ended at ₹267 a kg.
The price of ‘hale adike’ had ended at ₹300 a kg. 41 days ago. It is likely to touch the same level soon, Mr. Bhandary said.
He said that lifting the ban on the sale of ‘pan masala’ or scented supari in Uttar Pradesh after the second phase of lockdown ended, has created the demand for ‘hosa adike’, pushing the prices up. The consumer market in Gujarat demanded ‘hale adike’. Once the normalcy in Gujarat is restored after the third phase of lockdown, the price of ‘hale adike’ is likely to go up further.
Mr. Satishchandra said that the purchases of red variety of arecanut and pepper will resume in Karnataka and Kerala from May 11.