Faced with inadequate supply of cocoa beans from Karnataka and Kerala, the multi-State cooperative — Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Ltd (CAMPCO), Mangaluru — has been forced to rely on supply from Andhra Pradesh.
CAMPCO owns Karnataka’s only chocolate factory managed by the cooperative sector at Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district.
The shortage in supply has pushed up the procurement (from farmers) price of cocoa beans in the first harvesting season (May-July) of 2023-24. The price of wet beans now range from ₹70 to ₹75 a kg compared to ₹52 to ₹68 a kg the same time in 2022. Dry beans command ₹240 to ₹245 a kg compared to ₹190 a kg during the same season in 2022.
CAMPCO president A. Kishor Kumar Kodgi attributed the short supply to farmers removing the inter-crop cocoa plants from arecanut plantations, as arecanut now fetch all-time high prices. Many farmers are cutting cocoa plants to focus on arecanut cultivation.
“At present, the supply from Kasaragod (Kerala), Puttur, Sullia, Karkala, Kundapura and Shivamogga regions is negligible. Earlier, these areas were supplying highest quantity of beans,” Mr. Kodgi told The Hindu.
The cooperative is getting beans in small quantities from Mala, Moodbidri and Kervashe, near Karkala in Udupi district. CAMPCO is now relying on supply from Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh.
Earlier, the cooperative got between 4,000 and 4,500 tonnes of beans in the first harvesting season from Karnataka and Kerala. Now, it is expecting to procure about 3,000 tonnes from Andhra Pradesh in the first season. Considering the high import duty, relying on imported beans is not viable, as the cost will be anything between ₹290 and ₹300 per kg.
The second harvesting season will be from December to March. Quantum of supply during the second season will determine whether the total production of the chocolate factory will come down.
Mr. Kodgi said that the supply from Karnataka is expected to resume to the normal level after three years, as farmers have cultivated cocoa as an inter-crop in coconut plantations in central and north Karnataka regions.
