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| Sunday, 19 December 2004 |
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Coconut prices climb as Christmas nears by Elmo Leonard Last week the housewife in the suburbs of Colombo had to bear a cost of Rs 25 to 28 per coconut and in the final countdown to Christmas, the retail price of a coconut is expected to climb further. Coconuts are more costly in the non-coconut growing regions of the island, and in Anuradhapura a coconut retailed at over Rs 30, a broker said. Foremost among the reasons for the high price of coconuts is the shortfall of crop by two-thirds in November-December om what it is at its peak in April-July. The drought in the wet zone in the months of June to August this year resulted in the falling of healthy young coconuts which has aggravated the shortfall-situation, coconut growers said. The second most hazardous reason is that the middleman is exploiting the situation to pocket around Rs 10 per nut. This is apparent from the current farm-gate price of coconut standing at Rs 15 to Rs 17 per nut, President of the Coconut Growers Association of Sri Lanka (CGASL) Ranjith Dias said. Further, the Sri Lankan trader is well-known to jack up prices of all consumer goods which are not price-controlled during times when consumers have more money as in months when bonuses and festival advances are paid. Even during local harvest times it is the norm of Sri Lankan traders to jack up prices. The export of fresh nuts to Middle East nations adds to the factor of demand and sends coconut prices up, traders said. The coconut harvest this year was put down at a low 2700 million nuts by the Coconut Development Authority (CDA). Next year the island's coconut crop is expected to be around 2800 to 3000 million nuts. But this year with the price of a tonne of Adult Palm Mixture (fertiliser) standing at Rs 23000, up from Rs 14000 per tonne in 2003, 95 percent of growers have shied away from using fertiliser, CHASL members said. Yet, with the continuous rain experienced during the past four months the retail price of coconuts is expected to drop to Rs 14 to 15 per nut by March 2005. As is customary, most of the island's 65 desiccated coconut oil mills are out of commission during the year's end, for refurbishment. But the shortfall of coconuts are also keeping the mills closed, millers said. This year India purchased 11000 tonnes of desiccated coconut of 50000 tonnes shipped thus far, CDA's Assistant Director, Marketing, V Balakrishnan said. But, with the local desiccated coconut price standing at Rs 115 to Rs 116 per kilogram and the FOB - Free on Board price climbing to $1150 per tonne India is not buying. "Anything below $1000 per tonne is acceptable to India," a shipper said. India began purchasing Sri Lankan desiccated coconut with the advent of Bangkok Agreement in November 2003. Sri Lanka's other desiccated coconut buyers this year has been Egypt, Kuwait, Iran, the EU nations including Poland and Russia. Meanwhile, the CGASL membership is wary of the proposed entry of foreign vegetable oil processing mills into the country under the BOI. The authorities had promised not to permit the sale of the finished vegetable oil from these mills in the local market, Dias said. Imported vegetable oil is, however, freely available in Sri Lanka. |
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