Govt. raisin processing unit in Vijayapura to help farmers cut down on transportation costs to Maharashtra

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Funded by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and the State government under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, the unit is established by the Karnataka Grape and Wine Board. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

After almost a two-year wait, grape growing farmers in Vijayapura, Bagalkot and Belagavi districts will be able to access raisin processing and a cold storage unit at Thoravi village in Vijayapura from November.

Funded by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and the State government under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, the unit is established by the Karnataka Grape and Wine Board.

Once fully functional, it will help grape farmers in these three districts process and store raisins here instead of transporting them all the way to Sangli or Pune in Maharashtra or paying more money at private processing units.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mune Gowda N., Managing Director, Karnataka Grape and Wine Board, explained, “The capacity of the unit is 10,000 tonnes where raisins will be processed and stored along with pulses, grains and other agriculture commodities. The unit has a capacity to process four tonnes of raisins per hour.” After processing, raisins will be packed in 15-kg bags and stored in the cold processing unit.

He highlighted that the unit ensures farmers a good price whenever there is demand, instead of forcing them to sell at whatever price they get in the market.

Karnataka produces nearly 1.5 to 2 lakh tonnes of raisins every year. Of a total of 47,177 hectares of area in the State under grape cultivation, 42,000 hectares are in Vijayapura, Belagavi and Bagalkot.

According to the wine board, around 90% of the storage units for raisins in Vijayapura district are private ones and they charge ₹700 to ₹800 to store one tonne for one month.

Mr. Gowda said that while the charges are not fixed yet at the government facility, they have plans to charge ₹50 to ₹100 lower in comparison to the prevailing prices in private units.

The cold storage units require continuous supply of electricity. Besides taking an electricity connection, the wine board has installed solar panels on the rooftop of 250kW capacity. “In case of power disruption for one hour, solar power will support the unit. In the next few months, we will expand the solar capacity to 500kW,” said Mr. Gowda.

Going forward, the board wants to introduce a lab that can test the residue of grapes and raisins, an e-auction unit and export unit in the existing space.

Mr. Gowda said they had submitted a detailed project report to the State government.

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