Godrej Agrovet to invest Rs 300 cr in integrated palm oil unit in Telangana

MUMBAI: Godrej Agrovet Limited’s oil palm business vertical has announced that the company will set up an integrated palm oil complex in Telangana.

To be set up in the Khammam district, it will consist of a crude palm oil mill along with the provision of setting up a refinery in the near future. The company has an expertise of more than three decades in the oil palm business.

The company will also establish a nursery with a capacity of up to 7 lac saplings per year in addition to the seed production and research unit, Godrej Agrovet said in a release on Saturday.

“Telangana’s ambitious oil palm mission aims to bring 20 lakh acres under cultivation across the state. The mission will improve income for more than 5 lakh farm households while at the same time contributing to the nation's deficit for edible oils.

Along with being the rice bowl for the country, Telangana is all set to become the largest edible oil producer in India,” said KT Rama Rao, Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Industries and Commerce, and Information Technology of Telangana.

“We are delighted to partner with a strong and reliable partner like Godrej Agrovet in this endeavour. Their expertise in the oil palm sector will definitely help us achieve our goals of unleashing a yellow revolution”, said the Telangana minister, as per the release.

At the complex, Godrej Agrovet will be setting up a seed garden in India. This seed garden can provide seeds for the planting of 90,000 acres of area and shall help Telangana state to achieve targets for oil palm plantation.

According to Balram Singh Yadav, Managing Director, Godrej Agrovet said, “We are thankful to the Government of Telangana for creating an eco-system and giving us an opportunity to contribute to the nation’s journey of reducing its dependency on oil palm imports in the coming years.”

It will invest Rs 300 Crore over the next 3-4 years in setting up the integrated palm oil complex. With 65,000 hectares of palm oil under cultivation across the country, Godrej Agrovet plans to increase cultivation to 1.2 lakh hectares by 2027.

In July this year, Godrej Agrovet said it was allotted about 47,000 acres of land in Sangareddy district in Telangana for oil palm plantation.

Allocated by Telangana’s Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (Horticulture and Sericulture), the allotted area, it had then said, will be utilized by the company to expand the cultivation of oil palm and set up processing units.

The Telangana government has set a target to extend the cultivation of oil palm across 20 lakh acres in the state. A total of Rs 1,000 crore is proposed in the Budget for 2023-24 for oil palm cultivation.

India is the world's second-largest consumer and number one vegetable oil importer, and it meets about 60 per cent of its needs through imports. A large part of it is palm oil and its derivatives, which are imported from Indonesia and Malaysia.

Although oilseed production in India has grown over the years, production has lagged behind its consumption, resulting in continuous dependence on imports.