MANGALORE: Efforts made by the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Limited (CAMPCO) here to know the quantity of arecanut imported to the country for the past two years under various import schemes have received poor response from various customs offices in major ports in the country, according to sources in CAMPCO.

The customs authorities of two major ports have furnished details to CAMPCO.

But sources in CAMPCO said the arecanut imported had been undervalued.

They have doubts over details of the quantity of import.

According to sources in CAMPCO, 16,000 tonnes of arecanut had been imported through a major east coast port between April 2004 and September 2005. Arecanut was imported by a Delhi-based company at the rate of $ 270 to $ 300 per tonne for extracting tannin.

As per the details given by the customs office, 2,573.49 tonnes of arecanut was imported through the same port between April 1, 2001 and March 13, 2006.

According to the customs office of a major port on the east coast in the north, only 5,800.19 tonnes of arecanut was imported in 2004-05.

Only these two customs authorities have furnished.

Sources said that more tannin could be extracted from domestic arecanut as imported arecanut was of poor quality.

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