Girijan co-op retail sales up 30%

Co-operative corporation registers Rs 5.81 crore turnover on retail sales

Girijan Co-operative Corporation Limited's (GCC) retail sales turnover registered a growth of 30 per cent at Rs 5.81crore for the year ended March 31, 2004, as compared with Rs 4.44 crore in the previous fiscal.

GCC, established in1956, is one of the largest tribal development co-operative agencies in India for pure and natural products.

It undertook the guardianship of the tribals (Girijans) of Andhra Pradesh, to protect them from the exploitation of middlemen and petty traders.

GCC has been marketing around 17 processed and packed forest produce including honey, tamarind, soaps, sheekakai, rajmah seeds among others through retail sales.

"Though we had set a target of Rs 7 crore turnover on our retail sales for this fiscal, we could achieve only Rs 5.81 crore. This was mainly due to the shortfall in honey procurement and drop in tamarind sales price. Now that the honey procurement has picked up, around 45-50 per cent of our total turnover has been coming through honey sales alone, A Vidyasagar, vice-chairman and managing director of GCC, told Business Standard.

" With the improvement in honey procurement and hike in honey retail sales price by Rs 20 a kg, we are expecting a turnover of close to Rs 10 crore this year," he added.

During 2003-04, GCC sold 1,552 quintals of honey, 10,500 quintals of tamarind and 18.37 lakh soaps as against 1,935 quintals of honey, 6,292 quintals of tamarind and 12.6 lakh soaps respectively during the previous fiscal.

"Despite setting a retail sales target of 2,400 quintals of honey during this year, it didn't materialise because of steep fall in honey procurement due to severe heat conditions last summer. Even though the honey prices shot up by Rs 20 a kg, our honey sales dropped to Rs 1.97 crore, as compared with Rs 2.11crore in 2002-03," Vidyasagar said, adding that GCC's honey procurement from state agency areas would increase significantly this year.

"We are expecting a turnover of Rs 3 crore from honey sales this year. In addition to this, we expect to record Rs 2.14 crore in tamarind sales and Rs 2.16 crore in soap sales. GCC has appointed around 125 dealers across the state to sell its produces. These products are available in about 4,000 outlets," he said.