Cargill to set up Rs 500 crore corn milling unit in Karnataka

The project, spread across 44.5 acres land, will commence operation from September 2015

Food products firm Cargill India is setting up a corn milling plant with an investment of about Rs 500 crore at Davanagere in Karnataka and the unit is expected to be operational from next year.

“It is a Rs 500 crore project spread across 44.5 acres in Karnataka. The facility is under construction and will commence operations from September 2015,” Cargill India Director and Business Head (Grains and Oilseeds Crush) B K Anand said. The processing plant, with an annual capacity of 300,000 tonnes, will produce modified starch for the consuming processed food and pharma industries, predominately based in central and southern India, he said.

The company aims to utilise only 50 per cent of the capacity in the first year of its commencement and use the full capacity later in three years, he added. Anand further said that the proposed plant will directly benefit farmers from the region and is expected to generate employment opportunity for about 390 inhabitants.

The company would also create grain storage facility around the plant and focus on backward integration for corn supply chain industry, he added. Cargill India, a subsidiary of Rs 13,400 crore Amsserican global company, is engaged in processing, refining and marketing imported and indigenous vegetable oils.

That apart, it supplies food ingredients to manufacturers and food service industry, process, store, trade and markets farm commodities. Karnataka is the largest corn producing state in India.

Presently, there are two corn milling plants in the state set up by other private companies.