Copra prices expected to soften when NAFED starts selling stocks

18-Jul-2024 11:33 AM

Kochi. There is a possibility of a fall in the market price of copra due to the sale of copra stock purchased from farmers by NAFED, an agency subordinate to the Central Government.

However, it will not have much impact on Kerala because NAFED was able to buy only 102 tonnes of copra there, but the producers and traders of Tamil Nadu may suffer huge losses.

In fact, in the year 2023, about 39 thousand tonnes of copra was purchased by NAFED in Tamil Nadu, whose stock is now being tried to be sold. 

According to the Cochin Oil Merchants Association (COMA), the price of copra and coconut oil in Kerala remains stable at present.

The price of copra is said to be around Rs 100 per kg and the price of coconut oil is Rs 154 per kg. However, its demand in December is seen to be weak.

But due to good demand at the local level, its price is expected to remain stable for the next few weeks. The price of copra has started increasing in the international market.

The price has increased by about 12 percent in the major producing countries. Due to high freight, the cost of transportation is high, so its import in India is not proving to be economically profitable and the price of indigenous copra remains strong.

Despite this, the export offer price of Indian copra remains at a high level of $ 1250 per tonne, while the export offer price of copra from South East Asian countries - Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand etc. is close to $ 1000 per tonne.

Meanwhile, due to the decrease in demand in North India, the price of ball copra in Karnataka has come down, due to which traders there are being forced to convert ball copra into milling copra. The demand for ball copra (gola) is expected to increase in the festive season.