With the market for “hosa adike” (fresh arrivals of chali variety of white arecanut) of the 2020-21 crop season opening this month, prices of the produce have shot up considerably during the last fortnight.
According to president, Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (CAMPCO) Ltd., Mangaluru, S.R. Satishchandra, if the minimum price jumped up by ₹ 75 a kg, the maximum rate shot up by ₹ 55 a kg during the period.
For example, in the Badiyadka market, prices, which hovered between ₹ 225 a kg and ₹ 275 a kg on October 3, touched ₹ 300 a kg-330 a kg on Saturday. Prices in the other procurement centres of the cooperative were almost in the same range with a difference of ₹ 5 a kf or ₹ 10 a kg during the same period, he told The Hindu.
He attributed the jump in prices to various factors, mainly to supply and demand factor.
He said that there is shortage in arrivals due to reduced production.
As imports of arecanut are negligible since the lockdown due to COVID-19 issues, consuming market is entirely depending on domestic production.
Except large growers, small and marginal growers do not have stocks with them.
Mr. Satishchandra said that “kole roga” (fruit rot disease) which hit arecanut plantations on a vast scale in the 2018 and 2019 rainy season resulted in crop loss thus creating scarcity in the supply of old stocks. He said that an upward trend in prices might continue for some more days.
Ramesh Kaintaje, an arecanut grower and a member of G.V. Joshi Committee, which revised the production cost for arecanut, said that the prevalent prices for fresh arrivals are at an all-time high. Never in the past, prices of fresh arrivals jumped by more than ₹ 50 a kg in a fortnight just after the market for the new stocks opened, he said.
He said that even low grade “hosa adike” such as fator, ulli and karigot are commanding good prices now as never before. Their prices too have gone up. It indicated that the market demanded arecanut whatever may be the quality.
Quoting the Badiyadka market as saying, Mr. Kaintaje said that the maximum price for fator (nuts with cracks) jumped by ₹ 30 a kg to ₹ 255 a kg in a fortnight.
If prices of ulli jumped by ₹ 25 a kg, rate for karigot went up by ₹ 20 a kg during the period.