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Fresco Foods sets up gherkin processing unit at SEZ in Hassan
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Wednesday, 29 April, 2009, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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MV Chandrashekar, Bangalore
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Fresco Foods Pvt. Ltd, a private label manufacturer, will commission a gherkin processing facility located in the Special Economic Zone for agro and food processing of the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) in Hassan. The facility spans on 8 acres of land and has a built-up area of 50,000 sq. ft. The production will commence in July this year.
The total cost of the project is estimated at Rs 11. 60 crore of which Rs 60 lakh is from internal accruals and Rs 6.50 lakh is from bank term loan. In addition, it received a Rs 50,000 subsidy from the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Rs 1.60 crore from the Ministry of Agriculture under the venture capital assistance scheme of Small Farmers Agri business Consortium (SFAC). The company received this fund because of its backward linkages with farmers.
The company has invested euro 3 lakh for machinerys sourced from Germany, Spain and Greece. The production unit has a capacity of 10,000 tonnes. The first consignment of 25 containers of processed gherkins will be shipped to Europe, Switzerland, Russia, valued at Rs 1.3 crore. After which 58 containers will be exported to the same regions, according to Fuzail Anees managing director, Fresco Foods.
The products are packed in bottles, jars, cans and barrels in sizes from 370 ml to 1400 ml. The bulk barrels are in 220 litres and 240 litres. In Europe, the gherkin jars and cans will be sold in super markets. The barrels would be for the institutional sales.
Fresco has got into contract farming in Davangere, Tumkur and Hassan. They have identified 1,200 farmers. The company has entered into an agreement with the farmers to buy back the produce at pre-agreed prices.
The company is working to seek HACCP, IFS and BRC compliances which will take another six months. It is also looking at an approval of USFDA in 2010, he said.
It will tap the North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Korea markets after consolidating its presence in Europe.
While most of the gherkin manufacturers solely focus on one product, Fresco will cater to a multi-product venture. These will include Jalapenos (Mexican chilly cherry ), Indian tomato, silver skin onion, baby corn, bell pepper, paprika, cauliflower, red cabbage and small beetroots.
With recession, prices had come down but demand for gherkins was on the upswing, said Anees. In the western world gherkins are indispensable in sandwiches which makes gherkins from India very much in demand.
Nearly 60 % of gherkins are exported to European countries from Karnataka, followed by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh sharing the rest.
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