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Venture to produce white pepper

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Agro Industries Corporation (KAIC), jointly promoted by the Union and State governments, is launching a new venture to produce value-added white pepper from pepper.

Corporation chairman Ambalathara Sreedharan Nair and managing director N.K. Manoj said here on Thursday that a procurement centre and production unit of the new venture would be set up in Sultan Bathery in Wayanad district.

The foundations for the centre would be laid by Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran on May 17. M.P. Veerendrakumar, MP, would preside over the function. They termed it as a second anniversary gift of the State government. The unit would be of 300 tonne capacity.

They said that white pepper had good export potential. With the commencement of production of the unit, the KAIC would be able to procure pepper from farmers by offering them a good price.

India was one of the leading pepper producing countries in the world. But facilities for producing white pepper of international standards were limited in the country. The demand for white pepper in the international market was estimated to be around 1.50 lakh tonnes. India produced just one per cent of it now.

Black pepper fetched only half the price of white pepper. The new venture would also increase the farmer’s revenue.

Technical assistance for the project was being provided by the Union government’s National Institute for Inter-Disciplinary Science and Technology.

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