KOCHI: The opening of toddy shops on Wednesday, for the first time in nearly two months, turned out to be a case of flattering to deceive. However, tipplers’ dreams were shattered as most shops did not open. There was also not enough stock in shops that opened. At Kaloor Junction here, there was a long line in front of the toddy outlet there right from 9 am. However, Excise and police personnel allowed only five persons at a time to buy toddy. “Only around 70 litres of toddy tapped from the local area were there. It was sold out within two hours,” said Biju Jose, an employee.
Around 3.5 lakh litres of toddy is sold daily across the state. “We did not open our shops following the shortage. Only if around 50 litres of toddy are sold can we pay an employee,” said John Joseph, a toddy shop licensee in the Mamala range.
It is mostly toddy from coconut palms which is sold in shops across Kerala. Most of the toddy shops in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, and Pathanamthitta remained closed. Palm toddy is available only in Idukki, Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta and Kottayam. Hence, a few shops opened there. “We could not meet the demand in a day as coconut trees start yielding toddy at least 15 days after the flower stalk is prepared for tapping,” said Biju. AS Ranjith, Excise Deputy Commissioner, said locally sourced toddy was sold in the shops on Wednesday.
The government had earlier directed tappers to take down the pot used to gather toddy from the trunk as part of the crackdown on illegal toddy. But this, coupled with the scorching summer, affected toddy production in the state. Kerala has around 5,200 toddy shops, of which 3,600 are active now, with Palakkad alone accounting for around 805 shops. Among active toddy shops, only 533 reopened in Palakkad. In some places in Palakkad, police were forced to intervene after a sizeable crowd, which disregarded social distancing norms and did not wear masks, jostled with one another at the outlets.
If the daily production is a little over 3lakh litres, the actual daily consumption runs into several lakh litres and the gap is always bridged by spurious toddy. A consumer is allowed to buy 1.5 litres of toddy as parcel. If an average customer buys 1.5 litres of toddy, only two lakh people can buy the toddy. But this will hardly suffice since there are several million tipplers in Kerala.
Every drop counts!
An acute scarcity of toddy dampened the spirits of tipplers in Palakkad when the toddy shops opened on Wednesday. “There are a total of 809 toddy shops in the district of which licences were issued for 663. Only 533 of these shops opened on Wednesday as there was a shortage of toddy from the coconut groves in Chittur. The shops which opened at 9 am closed by 12 pm,” said V P Sulesh Kumar, Deputy Excise Commissioner. K.Sivan of Swathanthra Kallu Chethu Thozhilali Federation, said it will take at least 20 days for normal production in the coconut groves of Chittur. Excise has issued 80 inter-district permits from Palakkad and it should not have been done, he said.
4,616 toddy shops in the state
3,590 shops auctioned this year
30,000 toddy tappers registered with the Kerala Toddy Workers’ Welfare Fund Board