Tuesday 16 February, food and beverage giant PepsiCo signed a pact with the Maharashtra government to promote fruit processing and horticulture in the state as part of it's committed to invest Rs 330 billion in the country by 2020.
"Food and beverages localisation is very important. We already have a plant, Citrus International in Nanded, Maharashtra and we continue to invest in it so that we use more local fruits in our products," PepsiCo India Chairman and CEO Shiv Shivakumar told reporters.
"PepsiCo introduced Tropicana Mosambi two months ago and it is a way to ensure that fruit used by PepsiCo from the farmers improves," he said, adding that fruit-based drinks are growing faster.
Under the memorandum of understanding, PepsiCo will "continue to accelerate its on-ground work in Maharashtra to catalyse farming, improve yields and transform the fruit processing industry through several initiatives." After Mosambi, PepsiCo will develop and launch a series of juices with locally-produced fruits including mango, guava, pomegranate, litchi and jamun, the company said in a statement.
The US-based beverage giant will also leverage learnings from other markets in which it operates to identify a viable path for adding fruit juice to their existing carbonated drinks to bring significant volume in consumption, it added. Going forward, Maharashtra and PepsiCo are looking to collaboratively build a "best in class" fruit processing industry in the state, the statement added.
