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Alka Kshirsagar

Targeting pomegranates, mangoes for pilot project

Pune March 19 Doehler India Pvt Ltd (DIPL) is making its first foray into processing fruits in India and is targeting pomegranates and alfonso mangoes for this pilot project.

Current portfolio

The company, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Doehler GmbH, Germany, an integrated solutions provider for beverages and dairy products, set up its manufacturing plant at Pune four years ago. Its current product portfolio comprises blended fruit juice concentrate, nature identical (NI) flavours and emulsions that are supplied to a range of brand owners.

Elaborating on its new product line, Mr Tanay Srivastav, Managing Director, DIPL, says: "The major challenge lies in being able to create a market for the specified product."

Customising for locals

For instance, pomegranates from Maharashtra, India's major pomegranate belt, he explains, are quite different from those sourced for commercial use from countries such as Turkey, Iran and Azherbaijan. They have a different character, and are sour with an astringent taste. With the product being developed for export to Holland, the concentrate will require to be customised for the local palate. An additional factor for consideration is price competitiveness, he adds. In the flavours market, DIPL operates only in the nature identical (NI) product space, the other categories being FTNF (from the named fruit), WONF (with other natural flavours), NF (natural flavour) and artificial.

These find application in a variety of food products such as beverages (iced tea), energy drinks, carbonated soft drinks, fruit juices and Indian-made foreign liquor.

Healthy growth

In fact, the last has been identified as one of the high growth areas in this "high value, low volume" business sector.

Since it launched operations, the company, which supplies fruit concentrate and blended fruit concentrate to the South-East Asian market namely Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and the Indian subcontinent, has been growing at a healthy double digit pace.

With 6,000 tonnes of concentrate earmarked for its total sales area, the company expects to touch a turnover of Rs 40 crore this year, Mr Srivastav said.

More Stories on : Foods & Food Processing | New Projects | Horticulture/Fruits & Vegetables

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