Patanjali Foods limited laid foundation stone for setting up Oil Palm mill in Arunachal Pradesh.

By Apekshita Sonowal

Patanjali Foods Ltd which was formerly known as Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd. laid the foundation stone for setting up an Oil Palm mill at Industrial Growth Centre, Niglok, East Siang, Arunachal Pradesh, today on August 31, 2022.

The foundation stone was laid by Acharya Bal Krishna, chairman of Patanjali Ayurved, and Tage Taki, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Arunachal Pradesh, and other dignitaries.

According to the official press release, Patanjali Foods Ltd plans to undertake an oil palm plantation on a 38,000 ha area across nine districts in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. While two nurseries have already been established at Pasighat and Holongi, three more are in the process of establishment in Lower Siang District at Kherram, FTC, and Dipa.

“This will give impetus to state’s economy and will bring tremendous employment generation along with an increase in local farmer’s income,” states the release.

Patanjali Foods plans to undertake large-scale cultivation of oil palm plantation on 5 lakh ha area in India; out of which 3.2 lakh hectare area will be in North East region.

It further claims that Patanjali’s NE Oil Palm Program to benefit “the state’s economy for over next 30 years which will include key benefits such as average annual production of around 7.5 lakh MT palm oil, saving of about Rs. 10,500 crores of forex outgo annually and employment generation for nearly 5.8 lakh persons.”

Patanjali Foods is one of the largest palm oil plantation companies in India and have access to palm plantation in 55 districts across 11 states. The states are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Mizoram, and Tripura.

Currently, Patanjali Foods is working with 43000 farm families and have a 60,000 ha area under palm plantation. Moreover, they have 182 farmer information cum FFB procurement centres, 22 fertilizer godowns, and 2 state of the art oil palm processing mills in Andhra Pradesh.

Patanjali Foods Limited, is a large diversified conglomerate with business interests across edible oil and derivatives, Oil palm plantation, Food & FMCG and Nutraceutical business. In FY 2022, the company generated a revenue of Rs. 24,205 crores, registering a growth of 48% compared to the previous financial year.