The Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd is likely to get its first master godown by January 2021.

Addressing members of Campco on a virtual meeting platform as part of the Foundation Day of the cooperative, SR Satishchandra, President of Campco, said that the cooperative is strengthening its warehouse infrastructure at various places.

Work is in progress for the construction of a master godown at Kavu village in Dakshina Kannada district.

The 1.31-lakh square feet godown will have facilities to store commodities such as arecanut, cocoa, rubber and black pepper. Apart from the master godown, the Kavu facility will also have provision to process black pepper. The proposed godown is likely to be operational by January, he said.

Centrally located in the arecanut growing regions of Dakshina Kannada, the Kavu facility will be closer to the cooperative’s chocolate manufacturing unit in Puttur taluk of Dakshina Kannada. It will have a storage capacity of around 10,000 tonnes.

Later, Satishchandra told BusinessLine that the cooperative is also constructing a godown at Sagara taluk in Shivamogga district of Karnataka to strengthen its warehouse infrastructure in arecanut-growing regions. Around 50 per cent of the work has been completed on this project, he said.

Campco has around 150 branches across the country, and 12 depots in northern India, he added. Northern India is a major consumer of arecanut.