The Hindu Business Line : Coops find domestic market attractive for white arecanut

THE increase in the price of white variety arecanut seems to have made the co-operatives focus on the domestic market rather than venture into exports. In July this year, the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Co-operative (Campco) Ltd took out a delegation of members of Parliament from Karnataka to the Union Commerce Ministry seeking export subsidy for arecanut. Even the Kerala Government had forwarded such a memorandum to the Ministry.

But the current market condition, where the arecanut growers are getting good price for their commodity after a gap of five years, has made Campco to concentrate more on markets such as Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal to boost the sales of white variety of arecanut.

The Campco President, Mr L.N. Kudoor, told Business Line that the domestic market was more attractive to the co-operatives in the present scenario.

"We had got in-principle approval for five per cent export subsidy to arecanut during our meeting with the officials of the Commerce Ministry in July. But we could not avail ourselves of that facility following the improvement in the domestic market. The current domestic market is more attractive to us than exporting the commodity," he said.

However, he said the export market would have been attractive provided the subsidy level was a little higher.

It may be mentioned here that Campco took initiatives last year to export arecanut to Pakistan.

Mr Sridhar G. Bhide, President of the Mangalore Agriculturists' Souharda Sahakari (MASS), said: "Customers in Pakistan get arecanut from Thailand and Malaysia at a cheaper price compared to ours.

But the quality-conscious customers prefer Indian arecanut," he said.

Mr Bhide said his co-operative would bet on strengthening its position in the domestic market than venture into arecanut exports.

Mr M. Srinivasa Achar, President of the All-India Areca Growers' Association, said growers would benefit if their commodities were exported to other countries. However, arecanut co-operatives should come out with long-term plans for exports, he added.

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