A delegation of Andhra Pradesh State Oil Palm Farmers’ Welfare Association submitted a memorandum to BJP State president Daggubati Purandeswari on Wednesday, requesting her to take their problems, mainly the lack of a remunerative price, to the Central government’s notice.
Association president B. Veeraraghava Rao and National Oil Palm Farmers’ Association general secretary K. Kranthi Kumar Reddy stated in their representation that the duty-free import of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) was adversely affecting oil palm and other oilseed farmers and that the price of Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) plunged from ₹23,635 per tonne in May 2022 to ₹13,000 per tonne by September that year due to the price of CPO falling from ₹1,45,000 per tonne to ₹74,000 per tonne.
The import duty which was at 49% has been reduced to zero by April 2022, causing huge loss to the farmers. Keeping in view the need for edible oil self-sufficiency and the livelihood concerns of edible oil farmers, the Central government should evolve a dynamic import duty mechanism and re-impose import duties to protect the livelihood of oil palm and other oilseed farmers from undue foreign competition, they said.
Besides, the CPO price should be maintained at ₹1,20,000 per tonne to cover the cost of cultivation of oil palm and other oilseed crops. The association representatives further said the viability price formula of the Government of India was far short of covering the cost of cultivation and that it does not include the value of by-products (nuts).
