Assam, Arunachal Pradesh emerging palm oil hubs

Hyderabad: Leading oil palm major 3F Oil Palm has announced an investment of Rs1,750 crore in oil palm cultivation across Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. With this, the palm oil production in India is set for a boost with major companies looking forward to set up production units in the North-Eastern states.

The announcement was made by the company on Wednesday as a part of its operational plan to expand its reach in the country under the National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NPEO-OP), envisaged recently by the Government of India to enhance the production of oil palm to multi-fold growth.

Within next five years, 3F Oil Palm is planning to increase its oil palm area under cultivation by around 31 times to 62,000 hectares in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The company is also lookingforward to growing its workforce upto 3,000 people in the state in the next five years by enhancing thecultivated land.

With the announcement, Sanjay Goenka, MD and CEO, 3F Oil Palm, said: "NEOP-OP is a visionary step from the Government of India towards the cause of Atmanirbharat. The policy has encouraged us to expand and propel our growth engines. We geared up to make strategic investments and expand operations to more states that offer immense potential in oil palm cultivation to maintain a leadership position in the oil palm industry in the country."

The company is also looking forward to plan commission of an oil palm processing unit in Arunachal Pradesh by the next financial year of 2022-23. For the state of Assam, 3F Oil Palm anticipates investment attraction of up to Rs1,000 crore from the company through adding 30,000 hectares of cultivated land along with employment for 2,000 people.

"The increase in oil palm cultivation in India will assist in bringing down the import load on the economy totalling Rs70,000 crore of foreign currency with North-East playing a significantrole," Goenka added.

The investments, as per the company, will be made in developing an integrated oil palm project comprising activities including nursery operations, area expansion, crop maintenance, fresh fruitbunches (FFB) harvesting and collection, oil palm processing and refining, power plant, and ancillary farmer services.