Congress MPs protest seeking higher MSP for copra, coconut

Congress MPs on Friday staged a protest on Parliament premises urging the Centre to fix higher Minimum Support Price (MSP) for copra, coconut and arecanut.

The MPs — Rehman Khan, B.N. Chandrappa, B.K. Hariprasad, S.P. Muddehanume Gowda, Dhru Narayana, D.K. Suresh, Prakash Hukkeri, and M. Veerappa Moily — protested outside the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament.

Financial crisis

As growers in the State are in deep financial crisis owing to crash in prices of commodities, the MPs demanded ban on import of arecanut and coconut.

They demanded MSP of Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 3,000 per quintal of copra and coconut, respectively. They urged the Modi government to fix MSP for arecanut at Rs. 40,000 per quintal.

Price crash

The price of coconut, which until recently cost anywhere between Rs. 20 and Rs. 30 in the wholesale markets, crashed to below Rs. 10 this season. This last happened in 2006.

Coconut and arecanut growers in coastal and malnad regions were in deep crisis owing to crash in prices of both commodities in local markets.