Himalya International to get EU licence for export

Paonta Sahib-based Himalya International Ltd, the only unit in India manufacturing mozzarrella cheese, has applied for the European Union quota for export and would get the licence in about four months.

This was stated by the chairman and managing director of the company, Manmohan Malik.

Mozzarrella is a premium quality cheese that can be preserved in the frozen form for more than a year. Himalya International is a 100 per cent export-oriented unit catering chiefly for the US market.

Although the demand for branded foods is growing in urban India, Malik has no plans to explore the Indian market. He said his hands were full for the next ten years.

"We supply mozzarrella cheese only to the premium brands in the US market. It's a high-end product that does not have buyers in India," Malik said.

The company sent the first export consignment of mozzarella cheese in the first week of last month. The Punjab plant has an annual capacity of processing 54 million litres of milk, which can produce 15 million pounds of mozzarrella cheese.

The company also exports different varieties of ready-to-eat baby potatoes, mushrooms and ethnic foods.

The food-processing plant started with producing canned mushrooms, IQF (individually quick frozen) vegetables, and fruits in December 1995.

The company uses state-of-the-art equipment (Frigoscandia M32) for handling fruits and vegetables, processing and blanching line from Holland and slicers from the US to ensure human free processing.

Of late, the company has forayed into exports of stuffed mushrooms and potatoes and Indian sweets to meet the demand in overseas markets.

"It's an environment-friendly venture as we convert the spent compose from the mushroom cultivation into organic manure through a bio dynamic process. In this we add enzymes and catalysts to the compost, which could be toxic in nature if mixed in the soil untreated".

The organic manure is provided to the local farmers. At present, 12,000 tonnes of spent compose is processed to draw an output of 600 tonnes of organic manure annually.

The company has covered an area of about 100 acres under contract farming in Himachal and has a target to extend it up to 1000 acres in the next three years.

"We are sourcing potatoes from Punjab and propose to grow potatoes in the surrounding areas under contract farming", Malik said.

The company has a target to achieve a turnover of Rs 50 crore this year and Rs 25 crore of this would come from the export of mozzarrella cheese.