Due to excessive moisture content, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation Ltd (Nafed) has virtually stopped procurement of copra or dry coconut in Kerala since last few weeks.
Due to heavy rains during last few weeks in Kerala and other Southern states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Kerafed, the nodal agency for procurement operations in Kerala on behalf of Nafed, has stopped lifting from the farmers because of moisture content of 8% instead of stipulated 6% in the copra.
According to an official from Kochi based Coconut Development Board, the government follows an Agmark norm which limits the moisture content to 6% for copra procurement.
?We have asked the central government to raise the moisture content ratio to 8% with progressive reduction in support price,? a CDB official told FE.
Excessive moisture impacts the quality of coconut oil.
As reported by FE earlier, Nafed commenced lifting of copra since May 2009 and a Nafed official said the federation has already procured 13000 tonne of copra including ball and milling till date in coconut growing states including Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Earlier the government had fixed minimum, support price for fair average quality of copra at of Rs 4,450 a quintal.
Due to stoppage of lifting by Nafed in Kerala, the open market price of copra is now in the range of Rs 3,140-3,175 per quintal. Kerala price dictates the price of copra in other states.
Meanwhile, Jagmohan Bhanot, additional managing director of Nafed said the government has allowed Nafed to procure of ball copra below 75 mm to 45 mm diameter in Karnataka for the current season at a price 10% less than the MSP. The procurement is expected to continue over the next few months.
During 2007, Nafed had procured around 43,000 tonne of copra in Southern India. Karnataka, with 19,000 tonnes, was the biggest contributor to procurement drive.
According to CDB estimates, the copra production in the country is expected to around 7.2 tonnes in the current fiscal out of which Kerala would be contributing 50% of production while rest would be contributed by states like Tamil Nadu (25%), Andhra Pradesh (10%) and others.