Warud-based agri company to export oranges

Citrus King Mandarin Oranges, a company formed by 50 progressive farmers in Warud, in Maharashtra's Amravati district, has firmed up plans for dispatching 10 containers of Mandarin oranges to the overseas markets.

The containers will carry 350 tonne oranges and will be dispatched to the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

The company, is one of the few successful ventures floated and managed by farmers. Managing director of the company and vice president of APMC, Warud, Neelkanth Ande said that the oranges will be sent on an experimental basis with permission and assistance from the Maharashtra State Marketing Federation, Pune.

"For the past two years, we have been sending oranges on a trial basis and studying acceptance levels," Ande said. In 2003, the firm sent one container to Dubai and in 2004-2005, it dispatched two containers to Holland and Italy.

"Few days back, our representative Ramesh Walaskar visited Holland to gauge the market conditions and found that there was a huge demand for Nagpur oranges," he said. This is perhaps because Nagpur oranges were found to be sweeter than those grown locally in the Netherlands. The jacket of oranges grown in Holland were also very hard.

Ande said, in overseas markets, Nagpur oranges were expected to command a good price. "The only thing that is asked of you is to maintain consistency in quality," he said.

Till 2003, oranges and bananas were excluded from the list of Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

With the initiative of Ram Kharche, the Maharashtra State Marketing Federation managing director, these fruits have been permitted for exports, he said.

Citrus King has facilities like pre-cooling, a grading-packing chain, chamber-cold storage - all under one roof. The cold storage has capacity to accommodate 50 metric tonne oranges. "Pre-cooling facility helps enhance the shelf life to more than two months," Ande said.

"We were inspired by grape cultivators in western Maharashtra, who have been tapping overseas markets since long," said Ande explaining why the company decided to take up exports.

Ande said, various orange-producing units could be established in the region to boost exports. One such attempt was made by the state government in Morshi some 12 years back when Harshwardhan Deshmukh was the agriculture minister.

The unit was set up in the MIDC area and modern machines were installed. However, it has not seen the light of the day, due to negligence of successive regimes. "The State Marketing Federation should take over the Morshi project and start operations," he said.

Ande is also upset with the power tariffs that agro-based units in Vidarbha have to pay. According to him, the Vidarbha units have to pay double the tariffs that those in the western parts of the state have to pay for power.

"We have often raised the issue on various platforms. But the problem is yet to be solved," he said.