Coconut Development Board has urged farmers not to sell of their produce at throw away prices, saying that the recent downward trend in prices of coconut products is temporary.
The market has registered a sluggish movement of the goods as a result of the start of monsoon season and the end of the main harvesting season in Kerala. It is expected that the market will overcome this temporary price fall and the prices will be stable by the arrival of the festival season, the Board said in a statement issued here.
The Farmer Producer’s Organisations should concentrate on procurement of produces and primary processing to tap the opportunities the coming festival season would bring in.
The Board termed “baseless” the reports taking rounds that increase in production in Tamil Nadu was the reason behind the price fall. The production in the country’s main coconut producer states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have decreased as compared to the previous year, it said.
As compared to May this year, export of coconut and coconut value added products registered 11 per cent growth in June. Apart from this, the import of copra and coconut oil to India was comparatively very low.