Maintaining an upward trend since past two-and-a-half months, white arecanut (also called ‘chali’) prices shot up again by ₹5 a kg on Thursday.
With this the prices for old stocks shot up by 25.45 % and for new stocks by 32 % during the period.
A major commercial crop in the coastal belt and some parts of Malnad, the principal purchaser of the produce in the cooperative sector, the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Ltd (CAMPCO), Mangaluru, increased its procurement price for “hale adike” (old stocks) from ₹340 to ₹345, and for “hosa adike” (new stocks) from ₹325 to ₹330. The last hike during the past two-and-months was on June 23.
When the market re-opened from April 13 during the lockdown, the cooperative offered ₹275 for old stocks and ₹250 for the new stocks. Since then till date the prices jumped by 25.45 % and 32 % respectively.
President of the cooperative S.R. Satishchandra told The Hindu that the upward trend might continue for some more time.
He attributed the constant hike in prices to negligible imports, drop in production due to continuous “kole roga” (fruit rot disease) and button shedding in the arecanut plantations since past two years, and high demand for the produce in North India, especially from Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat.
“Farmers expecting further rise in prices are adopting a wait and watch policy by not releasing the produce to the market,” he said.
Ramesh Kaintaje, an arecanut grower and a member of G.V. Joshi Committee, which revised the production cost of arecanut for the government last, said that the prevalent prices for new stocks is an all-time high. The maximum price new stocks fetched was ₹300 a kg in June, 2014. However, the prices of old stocks had touched ₹355 a kg in June, 2015, he said.
Among other factors, the Union government increasing the minimum import price of arecanut from ₹110 a kg to ₹162 a kg on June 3, 2015, appeared to have had an impact on the domestic arecanut market then, resulting in an all-time high in the prices of old stocks. The crop loss during the 2013 rainy season due to widespread fruit rot disease had also been attributed as the reason for the prices of old stocks shooting up then.