Dominique Coulombel (second from left) and Laury Bouchard (fourth from left) at the Rainbow factory on Saturday. A Telegraph picture

Kantivita (Phansidewa), Aug. 3: A Siliguri-based company has invested more than Rs 10 crore to raise a food processing plant here, the produce from which will make its way to several European countries.

Rainbow Agro Foods Limited will export fruits and vegetables grown in the Darjeeling district through the France-based Carrefour Group, which has more than 15,000 stores across the world.

“Around 150 self-help groups and 50 farmer clubs have been formed in Phansidewa and other parts of the district to supply us broccoli, green pea, cauliflower, carrot and pineapple. For mango, we have talked to a supplier in Malda,” said Vishal Gupta, one of the directors of the company. “We are identifying more cultivators to ensure that there is no dearth of supply for our plant has the capacity to produce eight metric tonnes of processed food, be it sliced, diced or pulp, in one shift (of eight hours).”

Vishal’s father R.K. Gupta, who is one of the promoters of the company, said this is the first-of-its-kind project in northeastern India where individual quick freezing (IQF) technology would be used.

In IQF cold air moves through the product, freezing each individual piece on all surfaces as it moves along on a belt.

Dominique Coulombel and Laury Bouchard, two representatives of the French group that claims to be the second-largest retailer in the world and biggest in Europe running units in 30 countries, visited the Rainbow factory, 30km from Siliguri, yesterday.

“We are here to check out the infrastructure,” Coulombel said. “From collection of raw material to packaging and dispatch, everything has to be hygienic and should match the standard adopted by our other exporting units.”

They visited different wings of the factory, jotted down details, sketched layouts and made suggestions.

The entrepreneurs, on their part, are ready to start operations. “We are waiting for bulk power connection. If things go as planned, we expect to commence operations by next month,” said Vishal.

The factory has four cold rooms, each one with the capacity to store 125 metric tonnes of processed food. “The maximum temperature in these rooms will be minus 24 degrees Celsius. But we can bring it down to minus 30 degrees,” said Vishal.

To meet international parameters, the Guptas have already started advising the farmers.

“It is imperative that they sell us produce of standard quality,” Gupta said. “We have to arrange two rounds of screening and grading, once at the collection centres in villages and another at the factory.”

The directors hinted that direct employment at the unit would be around 60-70, while indirect livelihoods, including those of farmers and transporters, would be higher.