When it comes to the tender coconut trade, it seems to be a no-win situation for the growers and the consumers, even as the APMC and the middlemen laugh their way to the bank. The Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) in the town conducts transactions worth an average of Rs 110 crore in a year.
While the farmers get Rs four to Rs six per coconut, the same is sold for Rs 15 to consumers in the State, including Maddur, and Rs 20 in Mumbai. A total of three lakh to nine lakh tender coconuts arrive in the Maddur APMC market from Mandya, Mysore, Hassan and Chamarajnagar districts. The consignments are then sent to retail sellers in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Aurangabad and other places.
The tender coconuts have to pass through two middlemen en route to the consumers from the groves. In the first instance, middlemen visit the groves and buy the tender coconuts from the growers at Rs four to Rs six apiece. In the second instance, the middlemen sell them at Rs nine to Rs 10.50 per coconut to retail sellers.
It is here that the Maddur APMC has failed, in being a link between growers and retail sellers.
The tender coconuts are not sold through the auction process here, thus flouting the norms. Registered tender coconut traders in the APMC purchase the consignments brought by middlemen from the groves. The registered traders then send the coconuts to retail sellers in various places.
Since there is no auction taking place, the registered traders end up fixing the prices as per their whims. Added to this, the APMC collects a market cess of 1.5 per cent. An amount of Rs 1.65 crore has been collected in the last financial year at the Maddur APMC market. But the APMC has not been developed to the desired level.
“There is not enough space in the APMC premises to conduct the auction process. Also, the tender coconuts may have to be sold on the basis of a grading system, to which the farmers may not agree. Hence, we have adopted the direct sale method,” said Venkatesh Reddy, the secretary of the Maddur APMC.
Boregowda, a coconut grower, said transportation was a problem for them if they want to bring the coconuts to the APMC themselves. “Moreover, the wholesale buyers won’t deal with the farmers directly, since they have a network of their own. Hence, we sell the coconuts to the middlemen who come to the groves,” he said.