The price of “Copra” was raised by the central government to help south Indian coconut producers

In an attempt to win over southern Indian farmers in the next general election, the government has declared the 2024 minimum support price (MSP) for copra, or dried coconut. The increase is lower than it was the year before.

While Karnataka is the primary producer of ball copra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are important producers of milling copra. The MSP has received permission from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which is presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

For milling copra, the increase is 2.7% of MSP, while for ball copra, it is 2%. The government raised milling and ball copra by 2.5% and 7%, respectively, in 2022 in preparation for the 2023 season.

While ball or edible copra is eaten as a dry fruit and utilized for religious reasons, milling copra is used to produce oil. For the 2024 season, the government has raised the milling copra price by Rs 300, which was established at Rs 11,160 per quintal. The ball copra price has risen to Rs 250, or Rs 12000 per quintal. According to the government, the whole increase is at least 1.5 times the manufacturing cost.

Anurag Thakur, Minister of Information and Broadcast, informed the audience, saying, “This will ensure a margin of 51.84 percent for milling copra and 63.26 percent for ball copra, which are well beyond 1.5 times the all-India weighted average cost of production.” He said that throughout the last 10 years, the MSP of copra has more than doubled.

“The MSP for milling copra and ball copra increased by 113% and 118%, respectively, over the last ten years, from Rs. 5,250/quintal and Rs. 5,500/quintal in 2014–15 to Rs. 11,160/quintal and Rs. 12,000/quintal in 2024–25,” Thukur informed the media.

Approximately 90,000 farmers have benefited from the Government’s procurement of a record-breaking 1.33 lakh metric tons of copra at a cost of Rs. 1,493 crores in the current season of 2023. The procurement for the 2023 season shows a 227 percent increase over the 2022 season.

According to Thakur, “Central Nodal Agencies (CNAs) for the procurement of copra and de-husked coconut under the Price Support Scheme (PSS) will continue to be National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) and National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation (NCCF)”.