Calcutta, Aug. 14: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will inaugurate a fruit processing unit in Jalpaiguri district on Monday.

The Rs 20-crore unit, the first in north Bengal, has been set up by Dabur and will produce branded fruit juice from local pineapples.

With an annual production of three lakh tonne every year, Bengal is India’s biggest pineapple producer.

“They have been conducting trial runs for months and the results have been satisfactory. The plant will begin operation on Monday,” an official of the horticulture and food processing department said.

Located at Karatowa on the Siliguri-Jalpaiguri state highway, the plant will process 160 tonne of pineapples daily. The juice will be packaged in the same plant.

He said Dabur is planning four more plants in the second phase of the project.