Atul may venture into natural products space

Looking at the favourable climatic conditions and productive soil of South-Gujarat, one of the oldest and largest chemical complexes in India, Atul Ltd, is all set to cultivate and extract herbs and natural products for the perfumery, cosmetic, as well as food and pharmaceutical industries.

The company has started cultivating patchouli crop. Its oil is used as a fixative or a base for floral blends, perfumery compounds and pharmaceutical formulation in around 55 acre land. It has further taken 200-300 acre land under contract farming.

The international demand of patchouli is 1,500 metric tonne per year, while domestic demand is around 150 tonne per year.

Major players in business include the Mumbai-based Kelkars, who produce 50-20 tonne patchouli oil per year. Atul's flora research team extracts around 10-15 metric tonne patchouli oil from the plant.

The cost of production of the extracts is Rs100 per kg input. The department of horticulture of the state government has given Rs 10,000 for cultivating the patchouli plant.

The National Horticulture Board has given 20 per cent subsidy on the project cost and for utilisation of the drip system of irrigation, while the Centre has given 50 per cent subsidy.

"Our company wants to invest in unused land and wishes to cultivate the value-added crops on it,'' said Ashok K Singhal, senior manager, flora department team, Atul.

"We have employed contract farming for patchouli cultivation and farmers are benefited by it. They get Rs 40,000 -50,000 per acre per year for its cultivation, which is better than what they used to get from other crops,'' he said.

"The cultivation of patchouli plant has mostly gained momentum due to the favourable climatic conditions and humidity of south Gujarat, during the June-September season,'' said Shinghal.

In addition to extracting patchouli oil, the flora department outsource extracts from ginger, cardamom, turmeric, geraniol ex-palmarosa and holy basil. The plant processes 40 tonne herbage per month giving 1.5-3 tonne finished outcome.

In an effort to align the extraction of natural products to the requisite needs in various applications, the firm's research team, has created a diverse range of extracts and essential oils and is working in a fulfledged manner for the last two years.