Punjab firm to make cans at Rs 50 crore

Lalru-based Agro Dutch Industries Ltd, one of the largest exporters of mushrooms in India, is putting up a can-manufacturing facility in Chennai at Rs 50 crore.

The unit will start operations by January 2007.

The company has a can-making unit in Lalru with an annual capacity of 400-500 tonnes of tin plates, and the upcoming unit will have double the capacity of the existing unit.

The chairman and managing director of Agro Dutch Industries, Malvinder Singh, told Business Standard the open-end cans would be used for in-house consumption and exported to Thailand, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

He said the unit was being put up in Chennai because of its strategic location (proximity to the port for export). The company has tied up with Soudronic in Switzerland and Stolle of the US for technology collaboration.

Singh started mushroom cultivation in 1993 in Lalru with an investment of Rs 25 crore. It had an installed capacity of 3,000 tonnes and a production capacity of 2,000 tonnes in 1994.

Now the installed capacity equals the production capacity and is about 36,000 tonnes. Mushrooms are grown in 200 rooms in an area of 200,000 square metres.

Agro Dutch Industries is a 100 per cent export-oriented company. It posted a turnover of Rs 150 crore last year and expects to clock Rs 250 crore in the current year.

"The increase in turnover will be on the back of an additional output of 14,000 tonnes (total output will increase from 36,000 tonnes to 50,000 tonnes) and will be exclusively for the frozen market," Singh said.

Twenty-two per cent of the import of mushrooms in the US is sourced from Agro Dutch Industries, according to Singh. The company employs 4,000 people, of whom 50 per cent are female, drawing a minimum salary of Rs 3,500 per month.

"Mushroom cultivation needs simulated conditions and uninterrupted power supply. So the company has put up a 1.2 Mw husk-based power plant in Lalru, commissioned last year. We want to install another plant of 1.2 Mw by next year, which will make us self-sufficient," Singh added.

---

MUSHROOMING

The unit set up by Agro Dutch Industries Ltd will start operations by January 2007

The upcoming company will have an annual capacity of 400-500 tonnes of tin plates

The open-end cans will be used for in-house consumption and also exported

The unit is being set up in Chennai because of its proximity to the port

Agro Dutch Industries Ltd is a 100 per cent export- oriented company. It posted a turnover of Rs 150 crore last year