Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar on Tuesday said that the Vazhakulam Agro and Fruit Processing Company would be among the first to be considered for licensed production of wine from pineapple in the State. The Minister was inaugurating a group of projects at the company, jointly owned by the government and pineapple farmers.
The pineapple processing unit was established in the early 1990s with the European Union’s support and has been producing fruit drinks.
The products relaunched on Tuesday included the Jive brand of pineapple and other mixed fruit drinks.
The Jive brand of bottled drinking water was also launched by the Minister.
The Vazhakulam plant was established with the objective of procuring pineapple when prices fall below sustainable levels. However, the plant had been idling for nearly three years.
Pineapple-based wine unit has been a major demand from farmers. Sources in the Vazhakulam plant said that the wine making unit had been proposed to make use of the fruit mostly during the lean season. The project cost is estimated at ₹5.89 crore and it will benefit thousands of farmers in the State, who bear the brunt of steep price fall from time to time.
The production line at the fruit processing unit, including the extraction line, to produce pulp had been in full steam, and the aseptic filling machine has been brought on stream now.
