U-turn: HPMC to supply juice concentrate to Patanjali

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 27

After a gap of seven years, the Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce, Processing and Marketing Corporation (HPMC) has inked a fresh deal with Patanjali Ayurvedic Ltd to sell 375 tonnes of juice concentrate this year.

Besides, another government agency, Himagro, will merge with the HPMC, for which modalities are being prepared, sources said.

Apart from selling its juice concentrate to the Baba Ramdev-owned company, the HPMC would sell four lakh tetrapacks to Radha Soami Satsang this year, said Prakash Thakur, vice-chairman of the HPMC. The Himagro Board of Directors has also decided to merge with the HPMC, he stated.

Revealing the details of the meeting of the HPMC Board Of Directors, which met here today under the chairmanship of Horticulture Minister Vidya Stokes, Thakur said “HPMC has tied up with a Bangalore-based company to prepare apple cider from fresh juice at its Parwanoo processing plant that will give an income of Rs 1.62 crore annually”.

HPMC inked the deal with the Patanjali today after the present Virbhadra Singh government did a U-turn over the Sadhupul land deal with the Patanjali Yogpeeth recently. HPMC okayed the juice deal soon after state Cabinet cleared Baba Ramdev’s herbal garden project this year.

HPMC had signed an MoU with Patanjali on March 9, 2010, to sell its juice and juice-concentrate when the PK Dhumal-led BJP government was in power. As per the MoU, Patanjali Yogpeeth was to buy about 350 metric tonne (MT) to 700 MT apple juice concentrate from HPMC every year.

The HPMC had agreed to sell juice concentrate at Rs 72 a kg for two years, but the deal was cancelled soon after Congress came to power. Patanjali had bought juice concentrate worth Rs 195.57 lakh and 60,078 juice tetrapacks at cheap rates from HPMC between 2010 and 2012, when the BJP was in power, sources revealed.

As per the new agreement, the HPMC has agreed to sell juice concentrate at Rs 125 per kg, though the market price has been increased to Rs 140 per kg, sources said.

“It was Patanjali which approached the HPMC. The company wanted to buy HPMC juice concentrate under its swadeshi slogan. The deal is for a year and the company will pay HPMC in cash,” Thakur added.

JC Sharma, MD, HPMC, informed the Board of Directors that this year, the HPMC registered 40 per cent increase in its sale over the previous year. As a result, the corporation had cut down its losses drastically to Rs 3.11 crore in 2015-16 from Rs 6.52 crore in the previous year.

The HPMC has decided to give DA to its employees from July 1, 2016, but the corporation is silent on the pending arrears of revised pay scale between 2006 and 2010 to the employees. It has set a sale target of Rs 92 crore in 2017-18 against a target of Rs 73.68 crore achieved in 2015-16.