Copra prices are impacted more by demand-supply than the minimum support price (MSP), said Vivek Karve, CFO of Marico after the government on Friday announced a steep hike in MSP of copra. The centre hiked copra MSP by up to Rs 2,170 per quintal for 2018-19 season.

Karve said that the current price of copra is higher than the revised MSP. “The correlation between the MSP of copra and the market price of copra, you will figure out that the correlation has not been very strong which leads me to believe that copra prices will always get determined by the demand and supply scenario,” he said.

Talking about business, Karve said, “We have always maintained that for us protecting and growing the franchise is very critical and therefore any reduction in copra prices would mean that we may pass on some of the benefits to the consumers through tactical measures such as consumer offers.”