Integrated oil palm development firm 3F Oil Palm plans to invest ₹1,750 crore in oil palm cultivation in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Outlining expansion plans for the North East in the backdrop of the Centre announcing National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), the company said its cultivated area in Arunachal Pradesh would increase from 2,000 hectare to 32,000 hectare over five years. During the same period, it would be investing up to ₹750 crore and create employment for 3,000 people by enhancing the cultivated land. An oil palm processing unit is also to be set up in the State by 2022-23, the company said.
In Assam, the plan is to add 30,000 hectare of cultivated land and provide employment for 2,000 people with an investment of ₹1,000 crore. Consequently, its oil palm area under cultivation in the two States would increase in the next five years by about 31 times to 62,000 hectare, the company said in a release.
The investments will be made in developing an integrated oil palm project comprising nursery operations, area expansion, crop maintenance, fresh fruit bunches harvesting and collection, oil palm processing and refining, power plant and ancillary farmer services, it said.
Managing Director and CEO Sanjay Goenka said NMEO-OP had encouraged the company to expand. “We are geared up to make strategic investments and expand operations in more States that offer immense potential in oil palm cultivation to maintain a leadership position,” he said. Besides in Arunachal Pradesh, the company has contract plantations in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.
