Premium Farm Fresh to set up terminal markets in Punjab

Premium Farm Fresh Produce Ltd, a part of Bharat Hotels, intends to set up four terminal markets, spread over 100 acres each, in Punjab and is also eyeing Himachal Pradesh for a similar project. Apart from that it has also bid for the terminal market in Chandigarh.

The company has already given presentations to both the Himachal Pradesh and Punjab governments as these two states have amended the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act.

It is waiting for the Act to be amended in Haryana for similar kind of projects. Premium Farm Fresh Produce Ltd Chief Operating Officer JS Yadav told Business Standard that in Punjab, the company planned to set up terminal markets in Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Mohali. The proposed investment in these projects is expected to be around Rs 500 crore.

Yadav said each terminal market will have a capacity to handle about 300,000 tonne of fruits and vegetables per year or 1,000 tonnes of vegetables and fruits per day (taking into consideration 26 working days).

The entire set-up would be on the hub and spoke model with 20-25 collection centres in each market and a catchment area of 20-30 km which would act as spoke to the market.

Apart from Punjab, the company has bid for the Chandigarh terminal market, which would be developed on PPP model, and is in race with Reliance, DCM Shriram, NCDEX.

The Himachal government has planned to set up terminal markets in Shimla and Solan initially followed by markets in Bilaspur and Kullu.

The company has tied up with Rangish market, Paris, which is the largest terminal market in world, spread across 350 acres and also with Sydney market, Australia, for technical assistance.

Commenting upon the area, he said, "The terminal market in Himachal it would be over about 20-30 acres."

The company has also bagged order for setting up terminal market in Nasik and has got in principle approval for the Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore markets. The company will invest close to Rs 425 crore in these four markets.

He said, "We plan to set up 10 terminal markets in India and would invest about Rs 1,000 crore spread over two-three years.

Terminal market is usually a central site or a hub that serves as an assembly and trading place for agricultural commodities.

The markets are linked to a number of collection centres and provide state-of-the-art facilities for grading, transportation, storage, domestic marketing and exports.