ITC Limited has opened a spices processing plant in Vanakayalapadu village in Palnadu district of Andhra Pradesh, with an eye on exports to Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and China.

The plant, which was inaugurated by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, has separate lines to process chilli, turmeric and blended spices. The aggregate annual capacity of the unit is put at 20,400 tonnes.

“The plant will be equipped with end-to-end processing equipment, including storage, cleaning, processing, sterilisation, packing and quality-testing facilities,” a top ITC official said.

“The infrastructure is compliant with global food safety export guidelines. It can process over15 organic spices and will boost ITC’s food exports globally,” he said in a statement here on Friday.

Farm linkages

The plant will build a spices value chain with a network of over 5,500 farmer families. Besides offering them a crop development programme, the company has put in a mechanism ensuring the traceability of the produce. Women will constitute the Majority of the workforce at the unit. “The plant will offer the finest quality of spices to the world conforming to global food safety export norms, while anchoring local agri value chains,” Sanjiv Puri, Chairman of ITC Limited, said.

“We have a century-old association with Andhra Pradesh, have been expanding our presence across the three key sectors of the State’s economy — agriculture, manufacturing and services,” he said. “The company’s extensive agri-business presence in the State covers a range of sustainable value chains encompassing spices, rice, aqua, fruits, pulpwood, among others,” he said.