Bharti plans $100mn spend for agri-biz foray

Telecom giant Bharti plans to spend $ 100 million (Rs 450 crore) in the horticulture sector over the next 5 years as part of its agri business foray.

"We will invest $100 million in the next 5 years in our agri business initiatives," Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Group, said.

The investment would involve acquiring farm land, setting up R&D base and other basic infrastructural facilties like cold storage for developing the base for a sizeable horticulture business, Mittal said.

The group now owns 5,000 acres of land in Punjab wherein it has already undertaken plantation of horticultural crops for export purposes.

"We plan to acquire 1,00,000 acres of agricultural land in the next 5 years for this business...the venture would concentrate on horticultural crops that
have export potential," Mittal said.

Though the investment in agri business is small as compared to the flagship telecom business, yet it would involve intense efforts to develop this new business initiative that has immense prospects. The government has announced various initiatives for the horticulture sector and the private sector could take advantage of it, Mittal said.