coconut farmers in Kerala have got tentative relief with the Kerala High Court lifting its stay on a ban on palm oil import through Kochi port. On November 20, the court said no consignment of palm oil should be imported till further orders.

About 80,000 tonnes of palm oil reach Kerala through the port every year. All other ports in the state, however, allow import of palm oil. Kerala has 3.5 million coconut farmers and accounts for 46 per cent of the country's total area of coconut cultivation.

Coconut farming has been facing a crunch because of several diseases and mite attacks. A sharp decline in coconut prices, coconut oil import and relaxations in the import duty of edible oils such as palm and sunflower oil have aggravated the situation. Coconut oil prices have fallen from about Rs 72 to Rs 46 per kg in the past two years and farmers say the ban by the centre has helped the ailing sector. "The ban has boosted the coconut oil trade. Consumption of coconut oil has been increased by 35 per cent, so are the prices,' says A J Kuriakose, president of the Kochi Oil Merchants' Association.

Palm oil, however, continues to reach Kerala through ports in Mangalore and Tuticorin. The authorities have confiscated 1,820 tonnes of low quality palm oil brought to the Kochi port from Chennai by train.

The farmers say that the centre should review its import policies and impose a blanket ban. However, the centre has no immediate plans to restrict the entry of palm oil through other South Indian ports, minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh said on December 7.