| ITC is willing to add West Bengal in its e-Chaupal network through potato farming given that it gets land to set up a snacks manufacturing unit in the state.
|
| |
| "Creating an e-Chaupal network with farmers will not be viable without setting up a manufacturing unit here", said Y C Deveshwar, chairman, ITC.
|
| |
| The company held talks with chief minister Budhdhdeb Bhattacharjee nearly two years back on the issue. Nothing moved from there, said Deveshwar at the sidelines of the eleventh national conference of National HRD Network here today.
|
| |
| ITC would require 60-100 acres to put up a manufacturing unit on the lines of a Food factory producing biscuits and related products. Orissa had already offered land to the company for the project.
|
| |
| "We are keen to invest in West Bengal and would wait for some more time to get the desired land", said Deveshwar.
|
| |
| The company was looking at expanding its food business and could acquire existing facilities but only at reasonable prices. It had $1 billion ready for such ventures, said Deveshwar. ITC would be expanding its existing e-Chaupal network to include 20,000 villages and 10 million farmers by 2010.
|
| |
| To build up a supply chain of potatoes for its snack business, the company would train the farmers in the network to cultivate specific varieties of potato required for production of chips.
|
| |
| ITC recently acquired Australian seed research company Technico Pty through its wholly owned subsidiary Russell Credit Limited in August this year. "Technico has the intellectual property rights for developing disease free seeds", said Deveshwar.
|
| |
| "We want to leverage the technology to expand our horticulture and agri-foods business", he added. |
| |
|
| |
Content Guide
