Mangaluru : Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (CAMPCO) Ltd. has achieved a record turnover of Rs. 1,600 crore and registered a net profit of Rs. 26.22 crore during 2016-17, said its president S.R. Satishchandra.

Addressing presspersons here on Monday, Mr. Satishchandra said CAMPCO has now ventured in to pepper procurement and marketing by entering into an MoU with ICAR’s Indian Institute of Spices Research, Kozhikode. It has bought 38.04 tonnes of pepper worth Rs 2.2 crore. Whole black and white pepper is cleaned, graded, and packed at IISR facility before being sold under CAMPCO brand, he said.

During the year, CAMPCO purchased arecanut worth Rs 1,308.27 crore and sold arecanut worth Rs 1,362.12 crore.

It also bought cocoa worth Rs 68.65 crore, rubber worth Rs 31.23 crore while sold rubber worth Rs 31.23 crore, and chocolates worth Rs 183.31 crore. The annual general meeting of the cooperative is on September 23 and the board has recommended dividend of 10% to the members, he said.

Mr. Satishchandra said the then Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s gesture in increasing the minimum tariff price of imported arecanut from Rs 162 a kg to Rs 251 on CAMPCO’s request has helped the farmers community in getting good price for their produce. The cooperative has been striving hard to maintain a stable market for arecanut even as the total production of its chocolate factory has touched 13,328.15 tonnes.

Though private traders stopped purchases during the demonetisation period, CAMPCO continued to buy arecanut to a maximum limit of Rs 20,000/Rs 24,000 till banking transactions were regularised. This has helped the arecanut market to stabilise, Mr. Satishchandra said. Though GST has impacted the trade, CAMPCO believes that the same would be of great help to the industry in the long-run, he added. The cooperative had achieved a turnover of Rs 1,593 crore and registered a profit of Rs 19 crore during 2015-16.