To facilitate meat sales, the Meat Products of India Ltd (MPI), the public sector undertaking of Kerala Government, is all set to start a chicken processing plant at Mundayad in Kannur.
The formalities for acquiring over 80 cents of land for the project is on.
The total cost of the entire project will be around Rs1 crore and with the completion of the Mundayad plant, the company will start export of meat products too.
The project is formulated as part of the expansion of MPI, which had invested Rs 3 crore recently. The company has also started a cold storage facility with a capacity of 20 tonnes at Edayar near Koothattukulam last year.
The MPI is also constructing a cold storage facility in Thiruvananthapuram to cater the needs of Southern Kerala. “We hope that the construction of the chicken processing plant can be started soon. The demand for home-grown chicken and other meat products will increase in the days to come as the people are more aware of the hygiene conditions in other states. The new facility will meet this demand,” said a top official of MPI.
Established in the year 1973, Meat Products of India holds a category A No 1 license from the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India for the manufacture and marketing of meat and meat products.
The company is engaged in production and marketing of various meat Aand meat products of pork, beef, chicken, mutton, rabbit and quails. MPI has been selling 25-30 tonnes of meat products per month. “On account of huge demand in Kerala market our sales have witnessed a huge increase during last financial year. We expect to register good growth numbers in this financial year too. The demand for home-grown chicken has increased five times following the ban on the import of poultry and allied products to Kerala from other states in last November. The demand is increasing considerably now a days,” MPI officials said.
As part of diversification, the MPI is also introducing meat products in retorting pouches. There are about 1,000 farmers in the state who are supplying meat to the company.