The Hindu Business Line : STCL to set up pepper processing plant in Kodagu

STCL, a subsidiary of State Trading Corporation (STC), will be setting up a pepper processing plant with warehousing facility at Kushalnagar in Kodagu district of Karnataka.

STCL, will also be setting up a de-seeding plant with cold storage facility at Byadagi in the State. The plants are expected to come up by the end of the year.

Announcing this here on Tuesday, Mr Arvind Pandalai, Chairman of STCL and CMD of STC, said the pepper processing plant would help farmers gain better price as it would have facilities to improve the quality of the pepper.

A similar advantage would accrue to the chilly growers, who have to send their produce to Kochi for deseeding after which it is used for blending with the Guntur chilly for making curry powder.

STCL itself has been marketing curry powder using the chillies procured from farmers from these two States. Karnataka alone accounts for 30 per cent of the country's total pepper production of about 70,000 tonnes.

About the investment on the plants, Mr K.C. Ponnana, Managing Director of STCL, said it could cost about Rs 8 crore-9 crore.

STCL made a turnover of Rs 315.23 crore in 2003-04. It recorded a growth of 41.38 per cent over the previous year. Of this, STCL's exports accounted for Rs 200 crore. With new products being added for trading, STCL hopes to achieve a turnover of Rs 500 core.