The Hindu Business Line : `Leh berry' juice from Ladakh Foods

LADAKH Foods Ltd (LFL) in a joint venture with the Small Farmers' Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) and the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed) has launched "Leh berry", an extract of Seabuckthorn fruit.

According to the LFL Group Chairman, Mr D. K. Mittal, Seabuckthorn, a deciduous shrub, is wildly grown in about 1.3 lakh hectares of land in the Ladakh region. The berries contain over 100 nutrients vital for body functions. Russian cosmonauts have used the berries on spaceship "MIR" to combat cosmic radiation and as an oxygen supplement.

A protracted research by the Field Reaserch Laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at Leh has led to the manufacture of the herbal beverage. Mr Mittal told newspersons that LHL was setting up an integrated processing plant at leh to process 2000 tonne per annum (tpa) of seabuckthorn fruit and to manufacture ready to serve fruit nectar, fruit pulp and seed oil. The Rs 5-crore project was supported by SFAC and Nafed by equity participation. A group of 300 Seabuckthorn farmers of Leh also have a stake in the equity of the company. The capacity of the plant was proposed to be increased to 20,000 tpa in a span of 5 years.

LFL, which had launched Leh berry in Delhi last year, had so far sold 7 lakh litres of the fruit juice worth Rs 1 crore. The company is planning to launch the fruit juice in Pune and Nagpur during the next fortnight. Currently, Leh berry is being manufactured at the Bhopal plant of Godrej Industries Ltd (Foods Division).

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