Sydney, Australia
November 2000

New South Wales-based Technico Pty Limited, has announced the establishment of a joint venture to carry out the production and marketing of TECHNITUBERâ seed and early generation seed potatoes in India.

The new joint venture, Chambal Agritech Limited, 50% owned by NSW based, Technico and Delhi based, Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited is finalising construction on a state of the art, $US3.6 million (AU$6.1) million TECHNITUBER® seed production facility located at Chandigarh, Northern India. Total project cost is estimated at approximately US$12.7(AU$21.5)million

The facility will have an initial design capacity of over 18 million TECHNITUBER® seed per year for use in the production of significant volumes of early generation seed and commercial potatoes for sale into the 27 million tonne Indian potato market, one of the largest potato markets in the world.

The TECHNITUBER® technology, which has won several innovation awards including the recently awarded Rabobank Agribusiness Award for Excellence in Technology and Innovation 2000, is a rapid multiplication technology delivering affordable early generation seed for all potato varieties to Technico’s global customer base.

TECHNITUBER® seed production facilities are now operational in Australia, China, USA and Mexico.

Mr David McDonald, Technico’s CEO said: "Through the large scale production of TECHNITUBER® seed in controlled environment facilities, we have successfully demonstrated the opportunities resulting from a new technology, far superior to any other production technology currently on the market. With this leading edge technology we are committed to causing a paradigm shift in the way India produces its potatoes."

Dr. K.K. Birla, Chairman of CFCL said "the project will bring to our country state of the art technology for potato cultivation. Located in Himachal Pradesh, in the heartland of traditional potato growing areas, it will be a boon to our potato-growing farmers.’

‘Mass production capabilities, reduction in the number of field generations needed to produce economic volumes of certified seeds, rapid introduction of new varieties, optimal seed size, ease of handling, transport savings and reduced exposure to field related diseases can be cited as some of the benefits to our farmers." explained Dr Birla.

Company news release
N3101