BL Agro, a food and consumer goods company headquartered in Bareilly, India, will invest Rs 7,000 crore in Tanzania over the next ten years, its first move abroad, Rural Voice reports. The phased investment will cover edible oils, dairy and animal husbandry, agriculture, research and manufacturing, and the company expects it to create about one lakh (100,000) local jobs.
Edible oil is the main focus. Tanzania is one of the world's leading sunflower producers, and BL Agro plans production and processing plants that add value locally and serve rising domestic demand. It will also look at modern dairy infrastructure for the livestock sector and is assessing contract farming and supply-chain links that would tie Tanzanian growers to its processing plants and markets.
"Tanzania is an agriculture and livestock powerhouse with significant headroom to raise productivity, and that is where Indian technology and processing expertise can make a real difference," managing director Ashish Khandelwal said. The company is also exploring work under Tanzania's Building a Better Tomorrow (BBT) programme on technology transfer and local value addition, and sees the country as a gateway to East Africa.
Tanzania's High Commissioner to India, Anisa K. Mbega, welcomed the plan, saying it would bring technology and jobs and "empower our farmers". The announcement followed a visit to Tanzania by a five-member BL Agro team and coincided with President Samia Suluhu Hassan's visit to India.
The expansion is part of BL Agro's aim to become a Rs 30,000 crore group by 2030. The report is by Ajeet Singh.
Photo: Ossewa / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Rural Voice
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