Calcutta, March 9: Frito-Lay India will soon start exporting to Sri Lanka from its Pune plant. The snacks division of PepsiCo India Holdings will also consider adding a third production line to its Sankrail plant in Bengal after 18 months. By then, the company expects to sell the entire produce of the plant in the eastern region itself.

The Sankrail plant, which currently makes 6000 tonnes of potato chips annually, sells 70 per cent of its produce in the eastern region. The remaining 30 per cent is sold in other parts of the country.

This plant also caters to the markets in Nepal and Bangladesh.

“The Sankrail factory has provision for three more production lines in addition to the existing two for the Lays and Kurkure brands. We have already invested around Rs 90 crore in the plant looking at possible future opportunities. The decision to expand can only be taken once the factory’s entire produce is consumed in the region. This should take another 18 months going by our 30 per cent year-on-year growth in the east,” said Manu Anand, managing director, Frito-Lay division, PepsiCo India Holdings.

Frito-Lay gets 16000 tonnes of potato (rabi crop) a year from Bengal and Jharkhand. Its annual requirement is 25000 tonnes.

The company expects to source 70 per cent of its raw materials from Bengal by the end of 2006.

The raw material storage capacity would also be increased from 4500 mt to 11000 mt within a year.

The company also plans to source the kharif potato crop from the Ayodhya Hills in Purulia.