HIMALAYA INRENATIONAL

Himalaya Inter takes up contract farming of culinary herbs:The company has made backward linkages into agriculture through contract farming arrangement with farmers at Paonta Sahib. HIMALAYA International Ltd, food processing company, has taken up contract farming of culinary herbs under its expansion programme. It has been implemented in Paonta Sahib (Sirmour), Himachal Pradesh, during the current financial year. "In the first phase, the cultivation of culinary herbs namely Dill, Basil and Thyme have been taken up on a commercial scale. These culinary herbs are also having medicinal and aromatic values due to which there is a good demand in overseas markets," Mr Man Mohan Malik, Chairman of the company, told Business Line. The company has made backward linkages into agriculture through this contract farming arrangement with farmers at Paonta Sahib. This type of farming is being undertaken for the first time in Himachal Pradesh. Under this programme, a package of crops is given to the farmers and the quality seeds and other agriculture inputs are arranged by the company apart from providing the regular technical guidance of the experienced agricultural experts of the company to the farmers. "The entire produce of the herbs is purchased by the company at rates fixed in advance," he said. "The results are encouraging. A total of 150 farmers are being involved during the current year and anticipated volume of frozen herbs should be 1,000 tonnes," Mr Malik said. The company aims to cover 5,000 acres of land in Himachal Pradesh under this programme by 2009. The food-processing plant located at Paonta Sahib has started with production of canned mushrooms, IQF vegetables, fruits and mushrooms in February 1996. The mushroom division has a technical collaboration with a reputed US company. Himalaya International has received an export order for 1.5 million lbs of IQF button mushrooms, to be shipped by September 2005. The order is valued at ,545,000, he said. It exports its quality products like mushrooms, vegetables to the US market. The company sees huge potential in this segment, as the world market for culinary herbs is valued at .3 billion, Mr Malik said. "The company has changed its focus for value-added products rather than commodity products such as canned mushrooms," Mr Malik said. "The company has established its own marketing and warehousing network in the US. The major products are frozen button mushrooms for breading industry. It has launched its cheese stuffed mushrooms in the US market," he added

Himalaya Inter: Good prospects: Hold for a year and see the profits reach Himalayan Heights.1. settlement with IDBI for loan of 14 Cr 2. interest to become nil 3. Plans to augment capacity to meet increasing order flow 4. Able to bring down antidumping duties against its exports to USA to zero 5. Reporting net profit for Q3, Q4. Now Q1 showed very good profits of 37 lakhs on equity of 15.39 cr. Considering the future stock is a good buy for long term.


Food processing firm, Himalya International Ltd had earlier bagged Rs 5.5 crore order from US FoodService. The company has secured the order worth Rs 5.5 from US-based broadline food service distributors, US FoodService, for supplying frozen stuffed mushrooms and baby potatoes. This order is directed to the east coast market of USA and shipments will be completed by October 2005