Harrisons Malayalam to invest Rs 560-mn

Kochi: Harrisons Malayalam Ltd (HML), an RPG Group company, will invest Rs 56 crore in its various plantations in Kerala. The company is a major exporter of rubber and tea besides having interest in pineapple, passion fruit, spices, tissue culture and engineering.

In its rubber estates, the company plans to invest over Rs 37 crore towards modernisation of its factory and field operations.

An accelerated replanting programme is being implemented over a period of 4 years to phase out the old generation clones and poor yielding fields. About 1,800 hectares comprising over 35 per cent of its current tappable area has been immediately earmarked for the programme wherein existing clones would be replaced by new clones.

In the tea sector, the company has chalked out a plan involving 6.5 million plantations over the next 3 years. This would be at an outlay of over Rs 15 crore. The company will enhance the orthodox tea manufacturing facility by another 5 million kg with an investment of around Rs 4 crore.

Last fiscal, HML exported 4.5 million kg of tea making it one of the top producer/exporter in the country and hopes to double its export in the next 2 years, a company release stated.