Price of Copra up by Rs. 115 per kg
Posted on: 25/Aug/2017 6:10:38 PM
As the harvesting of coconut came down in the districts of Coimbatore and Tirupur, copra production also came down. So, the price of copra is up to Rs. 115 per kg.
There are more than 200 production fields for copra production in the districts of Tirupur and Coimbatore. 250 tons of copras are produced daily.
The copras are taken to 135 Coconut oil factories in Kangayam, Vellakkovil, and Muthur in Tirupur district.
On an average, 500 tons of coconut oil is produced here daily. As there was an increase of harvest of coconut and copra last year, the price of copra went down to Rs. 50 per kg from January to May.
However, about Rs. 70 per kg has to be sent for every kg of copra production. So, the farmers suffered losses. As monsoon also failed, the harvesting of coconut came down by 60%. The average expected weight of the coconut also came down from the expected 600 gms to 450 gms.
When 100 coconuts are broken and dried for conversion as copra, 14 kg of copra should be there.
However, this year, for 100 coconuts, only 10 kg of copra is obtained. Both the quantity and quality of copra has reduced. 1 kg of copra was sold on an average of Rs. 85 per kg. This continued for 3 months.
However, the prices started rising from the start of August. The price increased gradually and touched Rs. 100 per kg last week. There was a gradual increase again, and last week, it touched Rs. 115 per kg.
The farmers informed that the current price is touched after a gap of 2 years. Though this is news for cheer, on the other side, the harvest of coconut is lower and the growth is also lesser. As the yield is lower, the benefit of the price increase is yet to be realised by the farmers.
