Emami Agrotech to invest Rs 300 crore to scale up Haldia oil plant

With expansion plans lined up, the company is targeting an increase in its market share in the Indian edible oil industry, from 5.5 per cent now to 10-11 per cent by 2018

Emami Agrotech will  invest Rs 300 crore to increase production of edible oil at its Haldia plant in West Bengal by 1,000 tonnes per day (tpd).
 

The present capacity of this plant is 3,000 tpd. Emami Agrotech has another plant in Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, with a capacity of 1,000 tpd.
 

“This will make our Haldia facility the largest single-location edible oil refinery in India,” Aditya Vardhan Agarwal, director of the Emami Group, said. “We expect the expansion of the  unit to be completed by the end of this year,” he added.  
 

The expansion will include setting up of a 7.5 megawatt (Mw) captive power plant.
 

 

Emami Agrotech is also scouting for land in Gujarat to set up two more edible oil manufacturing plants.
 

“Apart from expanding our existing facilities, the company will be coming up with two new plants near Kandla port in Gujarat and in Karnataka in a little over a year’s time.  Another mustard oil plant is in the offing in Rajasthan,” Emami Agrotech Director Manish Goenka said.
 

The Rs 350-crore Gujarat plant will have a capacity of 3,000-4,000 tpd of palm and soya oil.
 

With these expansion plans lined up, the company is targeting an increase in its market share in the Indian edible oil industry, from 5.5 per cent now to 10-11 per cent by 2018. The edible oil market in the country is estimated at 18 million tonnes.
 

Palm oil constitutes 75 per cent of total oil sales for the company while soya, sunflower, rice bran and mustard oil take up the residual percentage. This ratio, however, will change with the company planning to increase its sales from sunflower and soya oil.
 

Currently, sunflower oil accounts for 15,000 tonnes of  Emami Agrotech’s sales, which it plans to increase to 60,000-70,000 tonnes over the next two years. Also, sales from soya oil will increase from the present 100,000 tonnes to 300,000 tonnes.
 

The Indian edible oil industry is the world’s fourth largest after the US, China and Brazil. India accounts for around nine per cent of the world’s oilseed production.