After apple and pears the US is aiming to tap the dry fruit market in India with a California-based company which is the world’s largest grower and processor of pistachio planning to set up a processing facility here with an investment of about two million dollars.
We are looking for a location outside Delhi to set up a processing facility in India for our pistachios Paramount Farms Vice President Marketing Dominic R Engels told media.
The company aims to operationalise the plant by next Diwalihe added.
To start with the capacity of the plant would be in the range of 5-10 million pounds 2268-4563 tonnes per annum he said. It would process pistachios known as pista here brought to India from its own farms he added.
Asked about the planned investment to establish the facility he said it would be about 2 million for constructing the building and installing the equipment.
The US-based farm company has already introduced its product in Indian market with small quantities and has tied up with Reliance Retail to promote its Sunkist brand.
Paramount Farms would take different route to sell its product including supplying to importers and selling the processed pistas to wholesalers and retail chains.
The company aims to corner the major chunk of the domestic pista market currently dominated by Iran and Afghanistan.
India does not grow this fruit. We are aiming to have a share of at least 70 per cent of India’s total pista market in next 10 years Engels said.
