The 2024 season’s Minimum Support Price (MSP) for copra was agreed by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur briefed the media in New Delhi, stating that the MSP for the 2024 season is a rise of 300 rupees per quintal for milling copra and 250 rupees per quintal for ball copra over the previous season. More MSP, he claimed, would guarantee coconut growers more lucrative returns. Five thousand 250 rupees per quintal was the MSP for milling copra in 2014–15; by 2024–25, it will rise to eleven thousand 160 rupees per quintal. The minimum support price (MSP) for ball copra increased from 5,500 rupees per quintal in 2014–15 to 12,500 rupees per quintal in 2024–25.
This will guarantee a margin that is significantly more than 1.5 times the weighted average cost of production for all of India—51.84 percent for milling copra and 63.26 percent for ball copra. While ball or edible copra is eaten as a dry fruit and utilised for religious purposes, milling copra is used to produce oil. Million copra is primarily produced in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, while ball copra is primarily produced in Karnataka. Approximately 90,000 farmers have benefited from the government’s procurement of a record-breaking 1.33 lakh metric tonnes of copra at a cost of 1,493 crore rupees in the current season of 2023. The procurement for the 2023 season shows a 227 percent increase over the previous one.