The Hindu Business Line : Ladakh Foods plans jam, fruit sauce from Leh berry

WHAT can a little-known berry found in the icy heights of the Himalayas do for the fruit juice market in India? Plenty, if the plans of Ladakh Foods Ltd are anything to go by.

With sales of the company's Leh Berry brand of fruit nectar growing at a healthy pace, Ladakh Foods has widened its product range to launch two new blends in the juice market, besides renewing plans to get into jams and sauces.

Leh Berry is the nectar of a wild berry called seabuckthorn that is grown above 9,000 feet in the Himalayas, specifically in Ladakh and some parts of Himachal Pradesh.

With the seabuckthorn nectar sales growing, the company has decided to manufacture jam and fruit sauce from the same berry.

"Our total juice sales are expected to more than double this year. After launching the two new juice blends - apple peach and mixed fruit - we have decided to renew plans to make jams and sauces from seabuckthorn. These two new products should be in the market by the year-end. Through product diversification and increasing sales of seabuckthorn nectar, Ladakh Foods is targeting Rs 10 crore sales turnover this fiscal against Rs 4 crore in 2003-04, according to Mr Varun Kumar, Managing Director.

A nectar from orange is also expected to be launched in the market later this year, he added.

Ask him about the competition a brand like Leh Berry will face against established players such as Dabur Foods' Real and Pepsico's Tropicana, and he says the only difference is the distribution network, which Ladakh Foods is working upon.

It currently has 200 distributors across all major cities and towns but more are to be added soon.

Mr Kumar said that the juices are being co-packed by Godrej but the new products like jams and sauces will not be packed by Godrej since it is already co-packing these products for HLL.

"We are in talks with Mother Dairy and other potential co-packers and are also exploring the option of setting up our own packaging plant. A final decision on this should be taken over the next few months."

As of now, the seabuckthorn venture has cost the promoters about Rs 5 crore.

The company will have to make further investments to hike utilised capacity at the Ladakh processing plant, for setting up a packaging unit and in the marketing of its products. "This could mean up to Rs 60 lakh fresh investment in 2004-05 itself."

Ladakh Foods Ltd is a joint venture company of Small Farmer's Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) and the National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed).

The SFAC, a funding body under the Ministry of Agriculture, and Nafed together hold 24 per cent stake in Ladakh Foods, while the rest is with the promoters.

Mr Kumar said that even as it is becoming increasingly difficult to fulfil the domestic demand for seabuckthorn nectar and other products derived from this seasonal berry, the company has received a number of export enquiries from Nepal and West Asian countries. "It is possible that the company will consider exporting some products to these markets by 2005."

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