The Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd has decided to restrict the purchase of arecanut following the Karnataka government’s recent guidelines to control the spread of Covid-19 in the state.

A press release by Campco said that in order to protect the areca farmers by maintaining stability in arecanut price and keeping in line with the norms laid down by the government in the wake of increasing casualties due to Covid-19, the cooperative has proposed to restrict the purchases of arecanut to one quintal per member during this period of restriction up to May 4.

Keeping the safety of members and staff and to maintain social distancing, the above operations will be conducted through token system at all branches of Campco and will be restricted to 25 members per day per branch, it said.

Though the procurement of cocoa beans will continue as being done before, procurement of pepper will be discontinued at all branches for the time being, it said.