Goodricke plans foray into dairy business

Kolkata, April 18 (IANS) Tea major Goodricke Group is planning to foray into dairy business and will soon seek the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) approval for it, an official said Wednesday.

"We have licences only to grow tea and tea-related business. (For) anything that we want to diversify into, we have to take permission from the RBI," Goodricke Group MD and CEO A.N. Singh told reporters on the sidelines of the company's annual general meeting here.

The company, currently carrying out research and development (R&D) on a diary project in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, is likely to seek permission from the apex bank after June this year for the commercial venture.

"It has given us confidence that the hybrid cows, that give more milk, can survive in Jalpaiguri climate. We will be completing the two-year project in June...After that we will apply for the approval," A.N. Singh informed.

He said the Kolkata-based tea maker was expecting the nod by 2012 end.

The commercial dairy venture would come up in Lakhipara, near the company's R&D project.

"The project will be of a large scale. It will be a very multi-faced project," A.N. Singh stated.

He said that when the project would be in its full scale of operation, commercial production of milk would be 10,000 litres per day.