Mangaluru : The Campco achieved record purchases and sales  in annual turnover of Rs 1,870 crore during the fiscal year 2018-19.

This is a new record in purchases and sales in the history of the organisation said Campco president S R Satishchandra on Thursday.

He told the media in Mangaluru that arecanut purchases were valued at Rs 1,589.15 crore, arecanut sales at Rs 1,593.40 crore, cocoa purchases at Rs 76 crore, pepper purchases at Rs 24 crore, pepper sales at Rs 18 crore, rubber purchases at Rs 27 crore, rubber sales at Rs 28 crore and chocolate sales at Rs 203 crore.

The total production of Campco Chocolate Factory has touched 14,606 metric tons out of which 10,042 metric tons was produced for the Campco brand.

Chocolates worth Rs 193 crore (including export of 1,106 metric tons) valued at Rs 16.75 crore, were sold. Processing charge is valued at Rs 10 crores.

The Campco president said that Campco, in collaboration with CPCRI, was conducting research in value addition for Campco products.

To cater to the increased demand, Campco Chocolate Factory (CCF) has now installed a ‘Choco Chips’ – a new drop chocolate plant of 10 metric tons per day capacity. This machinery was imported from Turkey at a cost of around Rs 3.50 crore.

“To overcome the problem of shortage of skilled labour at areca farms, Campco, in association with the Agricultural Research and Development Fund (ARDF) arranged two skill development programmes at CPCRI, Kasargod. As many as 53 youths trained here and now they are earning good incomes utilising their skills,” he added.

Satishchandra stated that the yearly requirement of energy from KPTCL was approximately 60 lakh units. The company generates around 45 lakh units from the windmill turbine generators and the remaining 15 lakh unit are drawn from Mescom.

“It has been proposed to utilise 5 lakh units through solar generation and a 400 KW solar power plant will be installed in CCF, Puttur on BOOT model,” he added.

“The construction of a state-of-the-art master godown at Kavu, Puttur measuring over an area of 1 lakh square feet is in progress,” he said.

“The warehouse will comprise a cocoa processing unit to cater to the needs of the export market. Similar master godowns are planned at Baikampady, Belthangady, Sagar and Thrissur during this financial year,” he added.

As part of corporate social responsibility (CSR), Campco has extended financial aid for the medical treatment of grower members. Totally 31 beneficiaries had availed this facility.

“Of this, 19 grower members were given financial aid for open heart surgeries and 12 people for dialysis. It is decided to compensate Rs 50,000 to family members of Campco employees in case of their accidental death,” Satishchandra said.

“To insure member growers crops like arecanut, cocoa, rubber and pepper, we have distributed 142 metric tons of ISI quality Campco brand Copper Sulphate to the member growers (at reasonable cost). As many as 30,000 pepper saplings were distributed to members at a subsidised rate,” he informed.

Campco Vice president Shankaranarayana Bhat Khandige, Managing Director Suresh Bhandary M, and General Manager Reshma Mallya were present.