US firm may buy 10% in Himalya International
Food-processing units in the hinterland of India are flourishing and Himachal Pradesh-based Himalya International Ltd is a good example of the success of the regional food-processing units, growing exponentially.
In less than two years of its inception, the company is preparing to rope in its second foreign partner, the US-based Castle Gourmet.
Pennsylvania-based cheese major Castle Gourmet, the second-largest cheese and food-processing distributor in North America, is likely to pick up a 10 per cent stake in Himalya International, the largest producer of Specialty Mozzarella Cheese outside Italy.
The company is also one of the largest mushroom producers in India. This acquisition comes on the heels of the company finalising the sale of its patented organic manure rights to an American food-processing giant for $5 million.
In March this year, Himalya International set up its mega cheese unit at Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh, which was fully imported from the US and set up in six months.
The company then entered into a joint venture with Winona Foods, a $500 million company, which is the largest cheese distributor in the US, for buying the entire produce at Himalya’s cheese unit, which is expected to more than triple its turnover over the next two years.
Earlier, foreign collaborators who assisted in the mega cheese project had collectively picked up a 19 per cent stake in the company. The fresh investment will be through the FDI (foreign direct investment) route. It will be utilised for expanding the milk collection capacity for the preparation of mozzarrella cheese.
According to sources, the company has a technical and a marketing tie-up with Winona Foods, but with Castle Gourmet it will have a financial partnership. The company registered a turnover of Rs 45 crore last year and has set the target of Rs 220 crore by 2010.
The company is also exploring possibilities of venturing into markets like Hong Kong, Singapore and Gulf countries to export speciality vegetables.
A company official told Business Standard the firm had a fruitful partnership with local farmers for the contract farming of mushrooms, potatoes and vegetables, and wanted to expand it.
He added that large Indian companies going into retail food stores were also in discussions with the firm to source the professionally grown, graded and chilled vegetables for the super markets.
For the expansion of the vegetable business, the company got assistance from Nabard under the National Integrated Agriculture Marketing scheme of the Centre.
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