MANGALORE: The Mangalore Agricultural Sahakari Sangha (MASS) will shortly enter the commodity exchange with basic crops of arecanut and pepper.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the MASS, president Shridhar G. Bhide said that during the last five years the sangha had made inroads into the co-operative field and had worked as a link between farmers and the market. As a result, the arecanut market which saw drastic fluctuation in the last few years, had now stabilised and the farmers benefited to a great extent.

Vast scope

He said the arecanut marketing in co-operative sector accounted for only 20 percent, while 80 per cent of the trading was still in private hands. He said there was vast scope for many co-operatives to come into arecanut trading. In the coming years, MASS would work towards bringing more growers in the ambit of co-operative movement.

Mr. Bhide said MASS had expanded its area of coverage basically in the rural areas where farmers had no access to co-operative trading.

Trading centres were opened in remote places in Vittla, Manchi, Sullia, Karkala, Savanoor, Uppinangady, Ujire, Shishila, Neriya, Bajagoli, Karkala and Mananje.

He said in these centres, the MASS had purchased arecanut and pepper for Rs. 6.52 crores. From the trading of arecanut and pepper, MASS had made a profit of Rs. 8.12 lakh for the year 2005-06.

Coverage in North India

Trading centres would be shortly opened in Junagadh in Gujarat and Pune in Maharashtra. Some other North Indian centres were also under consideration of the board for similar facilities, Mr. Bhide said.

After launching small value packs of arecanut and pepper in the market, which became very popular, the MASS would soon launch honey in the retail market under its own brand name. The MASS would procure honey from Puttur-based Beekeeper's Society and market it in various parts of the State to begin with and later in other parts of the country, he added.

Appeal to growers

Mr. Bhide said efforts were on to appeal to the growers to sell at least 50 per cent of their produce to the co-operatives so that unscrupulous market operators would not get a chance to manipulate the market dynamics.

The MASS now had a newly elected body which includes K.B. Muniraj Ballal as vice-president, M. Jivandhar Kumar, T.G. Rajaram Bhat, Bhaskar Kotian, Savanoor Seetharama Rai, M.B. Sadashiva, K.Vishwanath Rao, Sudarshan Jain, Budiar Radhakrishna Rai, B. Niranjan, Pradeep Yediyal, K. Narayana Rao, Monappa Shetty, P. Venkatramana Hebbar, G.K. Mahabaleshwara Bhat, Nityananda Mundodi and Shivaji S. Suvarna as directors.

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