The price of wet cocoa beans is likely to drop from this week as the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Ltd. (CAMPCO), one of the principal buyers of cocoa from farmers, has decided to revise its procurement rate on Monday due to the moisture factor, a top official of the cooperative said.
M. Suresh Bhandary, Managing Director, CAMPCO, said that when the rainy season starts the yield from wet cocoa beans drops from about 32 % to 25 %. It means, for example, if a quintal of wet beans is dried, the yield, that is the quantity of dry beans obtained, fell from about 32 kg [in other seasons] to 25 kg. This is due to high moisture content in cocoa in the rainy season. Hence, the prices are revised downwards.
He said that the cooperative is likely to reduce the procurement rate from ₹ 54 a kg to ₹ 50 a kg. However, there would be no reduction in the purchasing rate of dry beans. The cooperative now offered between ₹ 195 a kg and ₹ 197 a kg for dry beans.
Farmers commonly cultivated cocoa as an inter-crop in arecanut plantations. Cocoa yielded in two seasons between April and August and from November to January.
He said that the cooperative purchased about 32,000 quintals of wet beans from farmers in the first harvest season last year.
When a multinational private chocolate manufacturer stopped procurement from farmers in the first season last year, it was CAMPCO which came to the rescue of farmers, he said. Mr. Bhandary said that the cooperative would distribute about 30,000 grafted pepper saplings to its farmer members next month.
After it began pepper procurement from farmers last year, it had distributed 20,000 grafted saplings to the members in the last rainy season. It gave saplings of creepers and not bush pepper, he added.
