After juice, jams, HPMC plans to produce liquor from apple
Subhash Rajta
Shimla, December 17
Known for its apple juice and jam, Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation Limited (HPMC) is planning to foray into liquor production from fruit to improve its financial health. Besides, the HPMC is all set to start wine production from next year.
“Besides making apple juice, we are thinking of producing liquor from apple procured under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS). We will conduct a study to understand how beneficial it will be for us,” said Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi.
The HPMC hopes to firm up a broad plan regarding the infrastructure required and the procurement of a licence for producing liquor within the next six months. “We will look for suitable land for setting up a distillery or find the existing facility that we can use. Once it’s done, we will explore funding source for the project,” said HPMC Managing Director Sudesh Mokhta.
He said that the venture would be quite beneficial financially for the cash-strapped HPMC.
He added that liquor production would offer them an alternative opportunity to use apple procured under the MIS. At present, only a fraction of the total apple procured under the MIS is used for preparing products such as apple juice concentrate, fresh juice, jams etc. Most of the apple is auctioned at non-remunerative prices.
Besides, the HPMC is hoping to market around two lakh litres of wine from next year. At present, the HPMC produces around 50,000 to 60,000 litres of wine from its fruit processing plant at Jarol in Mandi district. “There will be a significant increase in the quantity of wine from our plants from next year. We will start producing over one lakh litres from our Parala plant, while a new plant is under construction at Jarol. Overall, we are looking at producing more than two lakh litres of wine from next year,” said Mokhta.
The Horticulture Minister said that the government was looking at upgrading HPMC’s properties in other states for additional revenue. The HPMC has valuable land, cold stores and warehouses in metropolitan cities like New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
“We will consider upgrading the existing facilities or constructing new ones to enhance our revenue from these properties,” said Negi.
Good for cash-strapped corp
- The venture will be quite beneficial financially for the cash-strapped HPMC. Liquor production will offer the HPMC an alternative opportunity to use apple procured under the MIS.
- At present, only a fraction of the total apple procured under the MIS is used for preparing products like apple juice concentrate, fresh juice, jams, etc. Most of the apple is auctioned at non-remunerative prices.
