Unprecedented heavy rains, floods and road damages have brought Asia’s largest market for tender coconuts located in Maddur of Mandya district to a standstill in the last three days.
The supply of tender coconuts has been reduced by 90% in Maddur wholesale market in the last few days owing to heavy rains. This has disrupted not only local markets but also markets for tender coconuts across the country, as per Sunil Kumar M.J., a wholesale dealer of tender coconuts in Maddur.
Many destinations
The market at Maddur dispatches over 300 truckloads of tender coconuts, each truck carrying at least 12,000 nuts, to various parts of the country including New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Bhopal, J&K, Kolkata, Goa, Hyderabad and Chennai. More than 60% of tender coconuts, grown and harvested in Mandya, Chamarajnagar, Kollegal, Malavalli, Bannur, Nagamangala, Pandavapura, K.R Pete, K.M. Doddi, Srirangapatna, Kirugavalu, Gudigere and Somanahalli, are sold outside the State while the remaining 40% of tender coconuts are marketed within the State with Bengaluru alone consuming over 25% of it, according to officials at Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC).
But most tender coconut vendors in the city were off as they did not get any supply in the last two to three days.
Nagaraj who sells tender coconuts on K.R. Road said, “I usually get 200 to 300 nuts delivered from Maddur every day. But I have not got any supply in the last two to three days. So I shut my business for the time being.” Similar situations prevailed for vendors in R.T. Nagar, Vijayanagar, Kammanahalli and New BEL Road as well.
According to K.S. Nagesh, chairman, APMC, Maddur, tender coconut yield is usually low in the months of July and August and on top of it, heavy rains played havoc in the market.
“Farmers are not able to harvest coconuts as climbing wet palms is dicey during heavy rains. Also, the free movement of vehicles has become tough due to water logging. This has resulted in poor supply impacting local and pan-India markets. The situation will improve once rains subside and harvesting resumes,’‘ added Mr. Nagesh.
Shreyas M.S, of Vishu Traders at Maddur, has also confirmed that the tender coconut market has been witnessing a huge short supply in the last couple of days and this has pushed up the prices of tender coconuts to the advantage of the middlemen, however, farmers still received only some ₹20 a piece.
