Sharma inaugurates Spice Park in Rajasthan

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SME Times News Bureau | 09 Apr, 2012
In an effort to promote exports of spices from India, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry , Anand Sharma, in the presence of Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, has inaugurated a Spice Park in Rajasthan near Jodhpur on Sunday.

"With an investment of more than Rs. 167 crore [including private and public partnership], the parks will come up in Madhya Pradesh, Kerela, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu," informed Sharma, in his inaugural address.

Spice Board of India, the nodal organization of Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India, in an effort to promote exports of spices from India will establish 10 spice parks across the most strategic locations in the country by end of 2012.

A total of Rs. 167 cores are earmarked to invest in the spices parks. Out of which Rs. 75 crores are already invested in three completed spices parks in Chhihdwara in MP, Puttady in Kerela and in Jodhpur. The other parks will be completed during the year in states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Kota in Rajasthan.

The Board has completed the construction of Spice Park in Rampura Bhatia Village of Ozian Tehsil near Jodhpur in an area of 60- acres provided by the Rajasthan Government.

The park has common infrastructure and processing facilities for the seed spices especially cumin and coriander. A public private partnership is ensured with 17 exporters to set up state of the art processing lines and also cold storage facilities and also facilities to produce oils and oleoresins from seed spices. The machineries in the Park are capable for the processing of other seed spices like fennel and fenugreek, which are quite ample in this region.

A full line processing facility with a capacity to turn out two tones per hour has inbuilt facilities for pre-cleaning, grading, colour sorting, grinding and packing. The Spice processing facilities available at Spice Park are at par with the international standards. The higher end processing plants installed is a full processing line which includes pre cleaning, grading, colour sorting, grinding and both bulk and consumer packing ranging from 100 g to 50 Kg.

The Board is establishing a sterilization facility within the plant building with a capacity of 250 Kg per hour in batch process. The Board will also be allotting individual slots for exporters on lease basis for developing their own processing plants in the Parks. There was tremendous response from the exporters who wanted to set up their own facilities in the Park.

The Spices Board has set up other common infrastructures like Compound wall, Road, Drains, Water Distribution system, Power Station, Weighing Bridge, Common parking area, Truck yard, Warehouses, preliminary Quality Testing facility, Bank counter, Training center, Conference Hall, Canteen facilities etc within the Parks.

To ensure storing of raw materials for processing and to take care of the processed materials, the Parks will have warehouses exclusively devoted for various seed spices separately. Two Raw Material Warehouses with a storing capacity of 800 sq mtr each are devoted for Coriander while two other warehouses for other seed spices have a storing capacity of 800 sq mtrs each.

The Parks are being provided with a 33 KVA substation with transformer and 250 KVA D.G. sets for ensuring an uninterrupted power supply for the working besides a full fire fighting system.

The Board’s regional and zonal offices will start functioning from the Spices Parks with more orientation towards the spices growing villages. The other facilities provided include conference hall, training hall, and space for establishing mini QC lab, Bank and for Customs.