Prevailing drought, climate change impact lift arecanut

Sees 10% jump in a month, while that of white variant remains stable

Arecanut prices are witnessing uptrend due to shortage of stocks with growers and in the market.

Stakeholders in the arecanut sector feel that the climate change in the recent years and drought have impacted the production of the commodity.

Price of red variety of arecanut has seen almost 10 per cent jump in a month.

Rashi variety of red arecanut was quoted a maximum of ₹536 a kg in the APMCs of red arecanut markets such as Channagiri and Shivamogga on Monday. This price had reached a maximum of ₹488 a kg in March.

A market source said there has been shortage of red arecanut as many growers had sold a considerable portion of their stocks a few months ago. Production of red arecanut is likely to be impacted in the coming days also as several regions are facing drought now.

Comparatively, white arecanut prices have remained almost stable with a little jump in a month’s period.

New stocks of white arecanut command up to ₹360 a kg in the market now, and old stocks up to ₹440. The prices of new and old stocks were up to ₹345and ₹415, respectively, a month ago.

In fact, the multi-state cooperative Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd had suspended the procurement of arecanut from March 26 to April 6 to implement Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for its operation.

Mahesh Puchhappady, President of All India Areca Growers’ Association, told businessline that the temperature is above 40 degrees Celsius now in some arecanut growing regions. Climate change led to production decline of around 35 per cent last year also.

A Kishore Kumar Kodgi, President of Campco, told businessline that tight control on the illegal import of arecanut during the election period has helped stabilise the market.

This has led to the increase in the prices of arecanut in the domestic market.