Pepsi Co plans to expand operations in Punjab

Soft drinks multinational Pepsi Co is planning to expand its operations in Punjab and make the state the largest producer of juice concentrate.

The company also has plans to engage farmers in "a symbiotic contract farm production", in addition to collaborating with the state government in the areas of education, health, rural sanitation and the supply of clean drinking water.

This was stated by Sanjeev Chadha, CEO, Pepsi Co, during his interaction with Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. He said the company's contract operations in the farm sector ranged from potato production to apple and citrus fruits.

"We are expanding our area of interest to cover blackberry and pomegranate," said Chadha.

He added the beverages industry could be one of the key players in helping the state fight the problems of "falling sub soil water" through groundwater recharge schemes and rainwater harvesting.

Chadha said with the help of state-of-the-art technology, the company had brought the usage of water in the state down to one-third of the original. The same techniques could be used to promote water preservation in the state on a large scale.

At Jallowal near Jalandhar at a citrus nursery, Chadha said the company had tested the potential of the state's farmers 1989 through contract farming in tomatoes and the results were "marvellous because there was an increase of about 1,500 per cent in production in the state".

He said currently 4 million saplings of citrus were being developed at the Jallowal farm every year and the target of the company was to bring at least one-third of agriculture land under contract farming in citrus by 2015, and of that 1 million acres of land would be brought under citrus cultivation by the end of 2007.