“We are soon going to import machinery for the plant and will prepare concentrates from fruits,” Abbas said while talking to the media here on Friday.
He said that there was a high demand for apple concentrate all over the world, and China and Brazil were exporting it at low prices. He disclosed that talks have been completed with a European firm, Rubicon, for the sale of mango pulp, besides Nestle, National Foods and Gulf companies.
The plant had been built at a cost of Rs320 million over four acres of land in the Industrial Estate Area Multan and has so far produced pulp only from mango on commercial basis, Abbas said.
However, recent attempts to produce pulp from apple, tomato and guava also yielded successful results. The plant produced 560 tons of mango pulp, 80 tons of apple pulp, 50 tons of tomato pulp and 90 tons of guava pulp this year, he said.
Abbas said that sheds were also being built at the plant at a cost of Rs5 million for mango storage. “We have also asked the Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC) to provide more land adjacent to the plant to enhance its storage capacity to 100 truckloads of mango per day,” he added. The management has also sought approval from the Punjab government to utilise Rs40 million for further development of the plant. Abbas said that, at present, the plant has drums to store pulp and the management has sought approval to arrange small tin packs that will help in efficient marketing of the pulp.
A rest house to provide lodging facility to foreign and domestic buyers at the plant was also in the process of completion, he said.
He claimed that it would become the country’s biggest and most modern pulp and concentrate plant once the upgrading is completed.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2011.
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