Metro to venture into agriculture allied sector

Kolkata, May 07 (UNI) Putting its foray into the retail market in the back burner, Metro India Private Ltd subsidiary Metro Cash and Carry is all geared up to enter the agriculture allied sector of West Bengal.

Speaking at the launch of a Metro farmer training programme organised here today by Metro AG, a 50-billion euro company, in association with the state government, Deputy Managing Director Gerardo Monzillo said, Metro group which had entered Indian market in 2004 will now venture into ''Beneficiary Oriented Programme''.

'' We will set up a whole-sale business for which we have already identified land in the state. Through our outlet we will buy from the farmers at whole-sale price and sell to hoteliers after packaging,'' said Mr Monzillo.

Around 80,000 farmers have been issued metro-cards from whom the Metro Cash and Carry will buy live-stocks for their business at outlets dubbed as ''distribution centre''.

Admitting that there are problems in the procurement of land, Mr Monzillo said they are directly not a party to the subjudice case.

''We are here to do business. But if things do not work out we might shift our base.'' Besides India, Metro would focus on other Asian countries like China, Japan, Vietnam. The state government is yet to grant APMC license, which requires the company to trade notified commodities only in specified market yards.

The total sale space of the departmental outlet would be one lakh square feet, of which 20,000 would be temperature controlled.

Total investment to venture in the market comes to around 18 million Euros. Refusing to divulge the total investment to be made by the company in the state, Metro Director (Finance) Marcus Dichtl said, '' With financial support from DEG, a German Development Cooperation, we have set up business in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.'' It expressed its intention to venture into eight key districts of the state like Midnapore, Purulia, Bankura, Burdwan, Birbhum, Murshidabad, South 24 Parganas and Cooch Behar. '' We will expand our location to suburbs with adequate infrastructure,'' Mr Monzillo stated.

State Animal Resource development minister Anisur Rehman said agriculture allied sector which involves animal husbandry and fisheries is a labour intensive industry.

He said to generate employment, fund needs to be procured from outside.

''The goverment will work out ways to create a Public-Private-Panchayat (PPP) partnership to get in touch with producers individually,'' he stated.

Citing the example of 'Amul', which has also forayed into other states, the minister said the partnership would enhance the quality of live-stock. ''The state which has a huge deficit in milk, meat and egg industry is expected to benefit from the PPP if utilised properly,'' Mr Rehman added.

UNI