Patanjali Vegetables coming

New Delhi, July 16: In a shocking development, Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved is now looking to sell frozen vegetables like peas, carrot, cauliflower and has set an investment target of Rs 10,000 crore to expand capacity, multiple people with knowledge of the matter said.

Patanjali confirmed its plans for a large-scale foray into the frozen vegetable segment.

The company, which makes everything from noodles to biscuits to wheat and ghee, has already initiated a pilot launch of a few frozen vegetables like peas in markets such as Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana and Rajasthan.

The investment of Rs 10,000 crore over the next three to five years will help Patanjali expand capacity and manufacturing footprints as it competes with existing retailers and new-age grocers such as ITC and BigBasket.

Patanjali Ayurved plans to launch at least 6-7 frozen vegetables in the market in the second phase of the launch. Vegetables like corn, carrot and cabbage are likely to be sold in the frozen packaged format by 2019.

At present, the company is working on strengthening cold chain infrastructure across touchpoints in India and plans to reach 10,000 retail outlets across the country by 2019, the sources said.

To meet the demand and ensure availability across retail channels, Patanjali plans to process these vegetables at its units in Uttrakhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.

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