The HP Horticultural Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (HPMC) will export apple juice concentrate to Dubai and big Indian companies like Nestle and Parle Agro.
Addressing a press conference here today, HPMC Managing Director Jagdish Sharma said an order for supplying 200 tonnes of apple concentrate had been received from a Dubai-based company. “We have set a target of producing 1,000 tonnes of apple concentrate. If need be, we will buy apples from Jammu and Kashmir and extend the crushing season till November 30,” he said.
He said Parle Agro was keen to purchase about 500 tonnes of apple concentrate and Nestle too was interested. “We have set a target of making 1000 tonnes of apple concentrate out of which we have already made 550 tonnes,” he said.
Last year, HPMC was able to produce only 400 metric tonnes of apple concentrate despite there being a lot of demand for the product.
The HPMC has so far procured about 14,000 metric tonnes of apples under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) out of which 7,000 metric tonnes have already been processed. Efforts are on to enhance the cold storage capacity of the HPMC and the defunct cold stores at Rohru, Jabli and Odi had been made operational this season.
The state government is getting a feasibility study done to assess the viability of setting up juice extraction units in the growing areas all over the state. A proposal to set up dehydration and processing units for vegetables is also under the consideration of the HPMC.
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