The Hindu Business Line : Wet cocoa beans command good price

Mangalore, May 13 The price of wet cocoa beans has touched a new high with Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd offering Rs 33 a kg for its grower-members.

Mr A.S. Bhat, Executive Director of Campco, told Business Line that the co-operative is now procuring wet cocoa beans at Rs 33 a kg. This is an all-time high price offered for wet cocoa beans.

Moving up

The price of the commodity started moving up from mid-March. The co-operative, which was offering around Rs 28 till then, increased it to Rs 30 a kg in March.

The price of wet cocoa beans, which was at Rs 15 a kg during 1972-73, fell to Rs 6 a kg in 1979-80. The price was in the range of Rs 16-22 a kg for quite sometime.

Considering the demand for the commodity, Campco is encouraging its members to grow cocoa plants. In the last four years, the co-operative supplied around two lakh seedlings at subsidised rates. The co-operative plans to distribute one lakh seedlings during the current fiscal, he said.

During 2008-09, Campco procured around 5,800 tonnes of wet cocoa beans. The chocolate factory of the co-operative at Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district has the capacity to produce 12,000 tonnes of semi-finished and finished cocoa products.

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