With the temperature rising steadily by the day, the price of tender coconuts is also increasing by the day in Maddur of the district.
The tender coconut market on the premises of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) at Maddur is among the largest in Asia, even as over 100 merchants sell at least 3.5 lakh tender coconuts a day.
As per the data made available, over 1.4 crore tender coconuts have been sold at the Maddur market yard of 6.3 acres of land, since March 1 this year.
The demand and supply of tender coconuts have reached peak level because of increasing temperature. Owing to a similar rise in the demand for tender coconuts from other States, the entire produce is being sold out every day and yielding good returns to the merchants too, say the officials at the market.
13 crore coconuts
The merchants in the market yard had sold over 13 crore tender coconuts during 2014-15 and they are expecting to sell at least 16 crore tender coconuts this year.
On an average, merchants transport at least 3.5 lakh tender coconuts every day to Mumbai, Goa, Pune, New Delhi, Gujarat and other places. The demand has surged by at least 15 per cent in the past three weeks, according to Nanjunda, a coconut merchant.
Rs. 121 crore
The value of tender coconuts sold during the last fiscal was Rs. 120.72 crore, Jameer Saab, assistant secretary of the market, said. Nevertheless, the growers say that the benefits of rising demand for their produce were not reaching them.
It is middlemen/merchants who buy tender coconuts from growers at prices ranging between Rs. 6 each for relatively smaller ones and Rs. 10 each for larger ones. However, the tender coconuts are sold at Rs. 18 to Rs. 25 each to merchants in other States,” Kari Gowda of Somanahalli, told The Hindu .
Farmers grow coconut on nearly 1.5 lakh hectares of land in Mandya and produce around 15 crore tender coconuts a year. About 60 per cent of the produce is transported to other States and the rest is supplied to Mandya and other districts of Karnataka.
Tender coconut market at Maddur APMC is said to be among the largest ones in Asia
This year, merchants likely to sell about 16 crore tender coconuts against 13 crore sold last year
