With farm gate price for coconut continuing to remain less than ₹ 9 a piece, the Coimbatore district administration has written to the State government seeking extension of time to procure copra from the farmers.
Coimbatore, one of the largest coconut growing hubs in the country, had 88,467 ha under coconut in 2020-2021 and produced 6.19 lakh tonnes of coconut. Under the price supportive scheme, the State government procure the copra through National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED). The district administration was to procure 10,000 tonnes of milling copra and 400 tonnes of ball copra between January and June this year at the regulated markets at Senjeri and Negamam. With growing demand, the district started procurement at Anamalai, Kinathukadavu, Thondamuthur, Annur and Pollachi too. It had procured 3,535 tonnes of milling copra from 2,602 farmers for ₹ 46.04 crore. Of this, ₹17.65 crore was disbursed to farmers.
In a letter to the State government, the district administration recently pointed out that according to the copra procurement scheme, only 25 % of production on an acre (216 kg) can be purchased from the farmers and the growers get ₹105.90 for a kg of milling copra and ₹110 a kg for ball copra.
However, with planting of different varieties and use of technology for irrigation, coconut yield is high in the district. Farmers have copra stocks and are unable to get viable prices this year.
Hence, the government should permit procurement of 50 % of the production per acre (400 kg to 500 kg) and the procurement should continue till the end of December this year, it said.
A coconut farmer at Kinathukadavu said they get ₹ 7 to ₹ 9 a piece if they sell coconuts and ₹75 to ₹80 a kg in the open market for copra. These prices are unviable as input costs have risen multi-fold.
Meanwhile, Pollachi MP K. Shanmuga Sundaram had raised the issue of government support for coconut exports in Parliament and Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Anupriya Patel, replied that the Coconut Development Board, which is also the Export Promotion Council for coconut products, organises international trade fairs, buyer-seller meets, etc to promote coconut products in the overseas markets. Export of coconut and its products increased 30.23 % in value terms in 2020-21 compared to the previous year.
