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C.R. Sukumar

According to statistics, the State ranks first in oil palm, chillies and turmeric, second in mango, citrus and coriander production in the country.

HYDERABAD, Feb. 23

IT LOOKS like a classic case of abundant opportunities and lack of adequate awareness, which has resulted in a loss of crores of rupees in revenues.

Despite being the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the country, next only to Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh now finds itself in a position where it is unable to process and add value even to below six per cent the fruits and less than one per cent of vegetables produced.

And the issue does not end there. The inability of developing fruit and vegetable processing industry in the State has also resulted in the failure in exploiting various other lucrative opportunities such as packaging, cold storage, raw materials handling systems for minimising post-harvest losses, organic farming, vermin compost manufacturing, bio-pesticides industry and also drip irrigation industry in the State.

Observing this astonishing condition of the State, the AP Industrial and Technical Consultancy Organisation Ltd (APITCO), a State-owned consultancy body, said except mango and grape-based products, nothing else was explored by the State in the international markets.

The consultancy major finds huge processing opportunities for fruits and vegetables in the State involving mango, orange, banana, cashew, potato, tapioca, tomato, onion, gourds, beans, Bengal gram and peas.

The opportunities for mango include pickle, pulp, toffee, juice, ready-to-drink beverages, jelly, fruit bar, chutney, jam, squash and marmalades. Orange finds use in juice, ready-to-drink beverages, concentration, fruit bar, jam, squash. While banana has opportunities of chips, puree, banana powder and milk shake, cashew could be used to make roasting, powder and cashew nut shell liquid.

The potato has processing opportunities such as chips, powder and dehydrated potato granules, while tapioca finds use such as starch powder and dehydrated foods, and tomato could be used for making paste, ketchup, sauce, juice, dehydrated powder, pickle and chutney.

Opportunities also exist for grading and packaging. There existed a good export market for mango pulp, onion flakes, baby corns, gherkins, cucumber and watermelon, the consultancy organisation observed.

According to APITCO, about 1.37-million ha area was currently covered under various horticultural crops in the State. According to statistics, the State ranks first in oil palm, chillies and turmeric, second in mango, citrus and coriander production in the country. The total production of horticulture crops in the State stood at around 9.6-million tonnes, which accounts for 6.5 per cent of the national horticultural produce.

There are few areas where the State was found to be one of the leading players in food processing sector. APITCO has observed that the famous processed food brands such as Priya, Nutrine, Sunrays, Surya, Lijjat, Delite and Vijaya were from the State. The mango pulp from the Chittoor district leads mango based down-stream products such as Frooti, Maaza and Jumpin in the country.

Aimed at creating better awareness among prospective entrepreneurs on the existing and viable opportunities in fruits and vegetable processing sector, APITCO is organising a two-day national convention at Vijayawada on March 7 and 8. The meet would focus specifically on the entrepreneurial opportunities available for the prospective entrepreneurs in these sectors.

The supporters of the national conference include the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, Small Industries Development Bank of India, National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development, National Horticultural Board, Central Food technology Research Institute, Defence Food Research Labs, the Andhra Pradesh Departments of Industries and Commerce, Horticulture and Marketing.

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