Taking forward a year-old move of exporting chali variety (or white arcanut) tender arecanut to China for making chewing mouth freshener, a delegation of CAMPCO (Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Ltd.) will visit Beijing next month to finalise the proposal with a company.
The company, Kou Wei Wang Ji Tuan You Xian Gongsi of Hu Nan province in China, wants to prepare mouth fresheners from the peel of the tender arecanut grown in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in Karnataka and Kasaragod in Kerala. The company and the cooperative have held three rounds of talks since July last. Its representatives were in the CAMPCO head office here a week ago to take forward the move.
M. Suresh Bhandary, Managing Director, CAMPCO, told The Hindu that a five-member delegation of CAMPCO would visit the Hu Nan province in the fourth week of May. The procedures required for the trip are under way. CAMPCO wants to export at least 12 tonnes of tender arecanut, boiled and then dried, to the company this July on a trial basis.
What it wants
The company is not interested in round shaped tender arecanut (red variety) cultivated in Uttara Kannada, Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga and Davangare districts. It wanted conical shape tender nuts available in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Kasaragod and in other parts of Kerala.
The length of the nut should be between 1.5 inch and 2 inch. If the tie-up clicked, farmers here could get Rs. 2 per tender nut which is almost equivalent to the present market price for the chali variety (ripened fruit harvested and dried in sun).
Farmers growing the chali variety harvest ripene fruit and then dry it in sun. But, in this case, farmers would have to harvest tender nut of 40 days to 50 days old in July, boil it and then, artificially dry it. The challenge is drying it artificially in the rainy season. But this could be met as modern technology is available.
The company would discard the nut during the process and only the peel will be turned into pieces for chewing as gum.
If the company’s product succeeded, it would create an alternative market for arecanut as the chali variety was now mainly used for chewing and with pan.
A five-member delegation will visit the Hu Nan province in the fourth week of May
