Sweet taste of profit

Siliguri, April 18: Good news for pineapple growers of the region: size does not matter any longer.

Calypso Bengal Foods Pvt. Ltd, north Bengal’s second private investor in agri-business after Dabur, has now decided to buy pineapples of all sizes from the local growers.

Till now, the company had been manufacturing pineapple slices meant for export, for which only fruits of a certain size (less than 1.8 kg) were required. This was a major issue with planters here, whose crop had a significant quantity of the larger variety. At times, Calypso had to procure pineapples of the right size from elsewhere.

“We have now decided to diversify into juice making,” Debashis Sinha, the company’s manager, human resources and administration, told The Telegraph. “A team from Italy recently visited our site to set up a juice plant, which should be operational from May. After that, we will require pineapples of all sizes.”

“We will be buying 1 lakh pineapples a day, 40,000 for slices and the rest for juice,” Sinha added. “Size won’t matter in either category because the leftovers from slicing can be used up in making juice.”

The company has also fixed the floor prices (that is, the lowest guaranteed prices) at which it will buy pineapple from growers. “The decision was made after studying the average prices for the last few years and talking to the growers. We have even booked consignments from a good number of them at the assured prices,” the manager added.

The price for pineapples weighing 2 kg or so would be Rs 5 per kg, while those around 1.75 kg would fetch Rs 4.50 per kg. A fruit weighing 1.5 kg would get Rs 4 per kg.

For pineapple growers, the news of an assured market closer home has brought a lot of cheer. About 300 of them from Bidhannagar, Islampur, Chopra, Phansidewa and neighbouring Bihar are expected to benefit from the new arrangements.

“We are happy with the decision of the company, but the transaction should be conducted on a long-term and sustainable basis,” said Arun Mandal, the secretary of North Bengal Pineapple Growers’ Association.

While Calypso’s floor prices are no match to the current wholesale price of pineapples, the company will give planters the kind of security that the fluctuating markets do not.

Right now, though, pineapple growers are experiencing a price boom, “the biggest in the last 30 years”. “The wholesale market price has touched Rs 9.50 per kg. The last time the price came even close to this was seven years ago, when it was Rs 8 per kg,” said Mandal

“Because of short supply of sweet-lime and oranges in Delhi and north India this year, the demand for pineapple has shot up,” the association secretary added. “The pro-farm policies of the government has also helped.”