Amritsar to get edible oil refinery

Amritsar will soon have its first edible oil refinery.

GH Agro Products Private Ltd will set up a refinery on Ram Tirath Road and it is likely to start functioning from January next year. Spread over 4 acres (one acre is 4,840 square yards), the refinery will have a capacity of 50 tonnes of oil per day. It will be Amritsar's first and Punjab's fifth refinery. The cost of the project is about Rs 7 crore.

Talking to Business Standard about the plant, Managing Director AS Chatha said, "The machinery is indigenous. We have bought equipment from Lipid Engineering System, Pune, and are hopeful that from January, it will be operational."

Chatha said India imported 40 per cent of its requirement, and therefore there was wide scope for refineries, given a favourable government policy.

Regarding raw materials for the refinery, Chatha said it might be rice bran, hyola seeds, mustard seeds, sunflower, and soya seeds, depending upon the availability. We are planning to import canola seeds, which are highly popular in Canada, although hyola seeds can be used as a substitute. But the cultivation of hyola is in an early stage," he added.

Chatha said, "The authorities have been asked to purchase the hyola seeds grown under contract farming for the refinery."

Commenting upon the rice bran oil, he said it was the costliest edible oil in Japan, and demand for rice bran oil was growing in the domestic market because of it being cholesterol-free and rich in vitamin E. "After tapping the domestic market, we will go for export," he said.

Currently the firm is exporting basmati rice and is a partner of Deva Singh Sham Singh Company, a leading basmati rice export firm.

Commenting upon future plans, Chatha said, "We are creating backward linkages by setting up this refinery. After this we have plans to set up a solvent extraction unit, which uses rice bran as raw material, and then a rice mill. The project will come up on 13 acres of land, of which the refinery will be on 4 acres."