PANAJI
The prices of coconut, earlier Rs 25-30 has soared to Rs 40-50 per piece owing to supply side concerns but Director of Agriculture, Sandeep Fol Desai, attributed it to multiple reasons, including a drop in the quantum of imports from Kerala and Karnataka due to scarcity in those States itself.
"The quantities of coconut coming into Goa from Kerala especially has dropped. There are also concerns of reduced local production," Fol Desai told The Goan.
Some of the reasons listed by the top agriculture officer included less attention paid to care of trees by large coconut grove owners, ageing plantations and excessive harvesting of tender coconuts due to the tourism-driven demand.
According to Fol Desai, harvesting of tender coconuts impacts the yield of the tree one year later.
"So if tender-coconuts were harvested in March-April last year, the coconut yield of the plantation will be negatively impacted this year," he said, adding that yields have noticeably dropped in the Western Ghat region of South Goa.
In the local markets, meanwhile, retail vendors were quoting prices ranging between Rs 40 to 50, depending on the size of the nut. Tender coconuts were selling for a uniform price of Rs 60 per piece.
The rise in prices is impacting household budgets with inflationary trends in a wide range of daily use items and coconut being a quintessential ingredient in almost every Goan food recipe.
Freshly plucked nuts, according to a coconut trader in Salcete, were being bought directly from the landlords at between Rs 20-25 according to size.
Transportation and peeling costs come to another Rs 5-7 per nut raising the wholesale rate to about Rs 30-35 per piece," the trader said,
According to Fol Desai the pressure on coconut prices may continue and could only drop well into the upcoming monsoon.
