Ruchi Soya plans to commence palm oil plantations in North-Eastern states

Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali group-led Ruchi Soya plans to start palm oil plantations in Assam, Tripura and other North-Eastern states. The oil processor has already done field surveys for the palm oil plantations which will be set up through contracts that guarantee farmers a buy-back by Ruchi Soya’s processing plants to be set up in those states.

Ramdev, Yoga tele-evangelist who backs the Patanjali business group, told PTI that the company plans to set up palm oil plantations in the North East. “We have completed our survey here. We have plans for Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur among others,” he said. “We want to make India self-sustainable in edible oil. The groundwork for the plan has been done. It can be started at any time.” India currently has patches of palm oil plantations scattered in Assam, Tripura, West Bengal, Andamans, Gujarat, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

In regards to date of the start of the oil plantations, Ramdev said it would be done after Ruchi Soya which is in the process of raising funds from investors, retires its debts with the proceeds for a share sale. He indicated that the plantations to be run by farmers would be backed by processing plants set up by Ruchi Soya, as oil has to be processed within 48 hours of the palm being harvested.

According to official data given in a written reply to Rajya Sabha last month, Ruchi’s planned foray into palm oil comes on the back of a 44.42% increase in palm oil prices in retail market in July compared to the year-ago period. India imports most of its palm oil requirements from Southeast Asia, despite its home-grown plantations as edible oils are an essential ingredient in the cuisine of this nation of 140 crore people and its appetite for all forms of edible oils has been increasing over the years as per capita incomes go up.

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Moreover, a high rate of import duty on palm oil also makes it attractive to grow locally. India’s effective tax rate on crude palm oil is 30.25% despite a recent tax cut.