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Gubba Cold Storage, which a has storage capacity of 83 lakh cubic feet in facilities in Andhra Pradesh, will set up two facilities in Jalna (Maharashtra) and Ahmedabad (Gujarat) with an investment of Rs 16-20 crore.
“We are going to start construction next month and we hope to operationalise the facilities in 2013-14. At a later phase, we will open storage facilities in Bangalore and Agra,” Gubba Kiran, Chief Executive Officer of Gubba Cold Storage Limited, said.
The company, which registered a turnover of Rs 25 crore last year, targets to cross the Rs 35-crore mark this financial year. It has no immediate plans to raise funds for its expansion plans.
“We will fund it through part equity and part debt,” he said.
To mark completion of 25 years of the company, it held a day-long conference on ‘Preserving the life called seed’ at it facility here.
The firm has about 200 seed companies as customers, storing their parental seed and germplasm.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines, Kiran said the country lagged in storage facilities for agri produce and ready-to-eat food products.
“Over 80 per cent of the Rs 12,000-crore seed industry will move towards mechanisation in storage in the next few years,” he said.
P. Vidyasagar, Chairman and Managing Director of Vibha Seeds, said the total storage capacity of the country stands at 2.5 billion tonnes across.
About 60 per cent of this belonged to food and agri produce.
Seed bank
The company will set up a seed bank, the first in the private sector, with an investment of Rs 4 crore. “It is fire, water and earthquake-proof facility that can keep seeds safe for 50 years. We have signed a memorandum of agreement with Icrisat for technical support,” Kiran said.
The International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) runs a huge seed bank at its campus at Patancheru near here.
kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in
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