Blumberg Grain plans to invest USD 250 mn in India

US-based food storage technology provider Blumberg Grain is planning to enter the Indian market by investing about USD 250 million over next five years for setting up plant to manufacture components for scientific warehouses.
Senior officials of Blumberg Grain, a division of global investment firm Blumberg Capital Partners, are currently visiting India to scout for land to establish manufacturing facility and also explore markets to sell its products.
It is keen to work with state governments and the private sector to upgrade agricultural supply chain in India through the creation of modern food storage and warehousing systems.
"We want to be part of Indian agriculture story. There is lot of opportunity because of post-harvest losses," Blumberg Grain-West Africa CEO David Blumberg told PTI.

He said the company is visiting different states such as Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, looking for about 10 hectares of land to set up facility in India to manufacture components for scientific warehouses.
Asked about planned investment, David Blumberg said: "We have an investment programme of USD 250 million over the next five years in India".

This proposed investment would be on manufacturing facility, upstream activities like disseminating best farm practices to farmers and downstream infrastructure like processing and packaging facilities, he added.
The manufacturing facility alone would generate over 1,000 local jobs. From Indian facility, Blumberg Grain has plans to export warehousing/storage systems throughout Asia.

The company would finalise the location during this summer and plant could be made operational in 8-10 months after that.
Apart from scouting for land, Blumberg said the company is in talks with state governments as well as private players to market its storage systems and technology.
It has the technology to create greenfield warehouse infrastructure as well as retrofit existing infrastructure for warehousing operators.
The company's technologies, such as vacuum sealed organically fumigating bags, or its self-generating controlled atmosphere cold rooms ensure products stay in proper condition.
The technology helps farmers in realising better price and consumers by reducing food prices and price volatility.

Blumberg Grain is re-developing Egypt's new grain storage infrastructure, which when finished will comprise 294 sites across Egypt, and enable primary processing of 11.7 million tonnes of wheat per year.
It is also providing cold chain storage for produce and perishable storage for the Nigerian government.