Karur: The Tamil Nadu State Registered Coconut Producer Federations urged the Union Government to ban the import of palm kernel oil and coconut crude oil as this practice is one of the major reasons for a fall in the price of coconut.
In his letter, a copy of which was made available to press at Karur on Tuesday to the union ministers of Agriculture and Commerce and all Lok Sabha members of Tamil Nadu, the Federation’s state organising secretary P. Chelladurai said that there were 9 crore coconut trees and 6 lakh farmers were involved in coconut farming, the state producing 31.3 per cent of total Indian production and standingfirst in coconut productivity.
Chelladurai who is also director of the Pudukkottai Coconut Farmers Producer Company also pointed out that the price of coconut fell down to '15,000 per tonne from '31,000 during May this year.
This was because oil refineries were importing a large quantity of palm kernel oil and coconut crude oil, as the Congress led UPA government had provided 100 per cent import duty exemption for the import of palm kernel oil and coconut crude oil, he added.
