If the move by Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Ltd. (CAMPCO) to export processed tender arecanut to China for making mouth freshner on a trial basis succeeds, an alternative market for arecanut will be opened up.
It will be significant for arecanut growers in view of ban on gutka in the country. Though gutka has been banned, tobacco and arecanut are available in separate sachets in the market now. Consumers mix them and chew them. The two markets for arecanut — for chewing with pan and with tobacco — remain intact.
But this scenario will change after 2020. India is a signatory to the UN Framework Convention on Tobacco Control according to which it is obligatory to phase out its cultivation by 2020. Hence when tobacco will be out of circulation, arecanut will lose one of its markets.
Sources in CAMPCO told The Hindu that use of tender arecanut as mouth freshner could replace the market which would be lost by the phasing out of tobacco. As China had about 20 companies manufacturing mouth freshner, there was scope for marketing quality tender arecanut.
Konkodi Padmanabha, former president of CAMPCO, and president of the Karnataka State Areca Marketing Societies’ Cooperative Federation, said that according to an estimate, India produced about seven lakh tonnes of arecanut a year. “In that, even if 20 per cent is exported for making mouth freshner, the price of arecanut in the domestic market can remain stable,” he said.
Mr. Padmanabha said that arecanut growers would have to come forward to supply processed tender arecanut of Chinese standards and make a plan on exporting it to China. The government could arrange a study tour of progressive farmers to China to enlighten them on the processing and standardisation of arecanut and to know the demand for it there.
He said that the cooperative societies dealing with arecanut could also send a team of farmers to China.
M. Suresh Bhandary, managing director, CAMPCO, said that as per the current trend, farmers will get Rs. 230 per kg of processed tender arecanut meant for export for making mouth freshner.
