Mangaluru: Decks have been cleared for the entry of the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Ltd (Campco), Mangaluru, into the procurement and marketing of cashewnut and coconut.

The Central Registrar of Cooperatives under the Union Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare, has approved the by-laws of the Campco, amended to enable the cooperative to enter the the business of cashewnut and coconut.

S.R. Satishchandra, president, Campco, told that the cooperative is yet to chalk out the business plan as the amended by-laws were approved on February 9, 2018. It would be done after a marketing study.

M. Suresh Bhandary, Managing Director, Campco, said the cooperative would not get into procurement immediately, since the marketing network has to be built first.

It will at first outsource the manufacturing of products from cashewnut and coconut, before setting up its own manufacturing unit.

Mr. Bhandary said about two months ago, the cooperative began marketing black pepper under its own brand name Kala Sona in North India. Now, it’s being sold Jaipur and Ahmedabad as premium garbled black pepper.

The cooperative began procuring black pepper about eight months ago.

The pepper procured from farmers in Kerala is processed and packaged at the Indian Institute of Spices Research of Indian Council for Agriculture Research at Kozhikode. The cooperative has signed an MoU with the IISR to use the latter’s pepper-processing facility at Kozhikode.

The pepper procured in the State is being processed in the cooperative’s facility at Baikampady in the city.