Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Kendu leaves (Kl) Amiya Kumar Mohapatra has revealed that at least 8,500 quintal of the leaf has been sold through auction generating a total sale value of Rs 225 crore.
Mahapatra said a Kendu leaf Development Fund has been created, and as of now around Rs 107 crore has been augmented in this fund from the surplus trade of the leaf.
However, a shortfall of about 23 per cent in kendu leaf production is likely in the State during 2016-17 due to hailstorms, officials admit.
While around 3.75 lakh quintal of kendu leaf was produced during 2015-16 and generated a total sale value of Rs 542 crore, the production this year (2016-17) has been estimated at 3.39 lakh quintal on account of the 23 per cent shortfall, a Forest and Environment Department official said.
However, in order to tackle the situation, the Forest Department was asked by Chief Secretary AP Padhi to adopt more systematic post-harvest management, an official release said.
A Kendu leaf Coordination Meeting held under the chairmanship of Padhi considered the infrastructural requirement for up-scaling kendu leaf operations. The committee approved projects worth Rs 54.90 crore. The major projects include construction of 20 new godown buildings, boundary walls at 60 sites and construction of 600 permanent phadis (building to store kendu leaf) and modernisation of the kendu leaf offices.
It was also decided that people would be allowed to use the phadis as multipurpose community centres during the non-operational period.
Considering the trade prospects of 2016, Padhi directed the department to keep an eye over the price fluctuations in the market while selling the procured leaf.
“In spite of the fall in production because of natural calamity, kendu leaf trade this year is expected to fetch comparatively more trade surplus over the last year,” said Mahapatra.
This has been possible due to the improvement in standards of post-harvest practices like processing, segregation, binding and storage managements over the years, said the PCCF (Kl).