Golden Harvest Agro Industries Ltd will go for expansion with an investment of $33 million by setting up collection centres, a cold storage chain and launching a new product line by the end of 2011.
"We have an expansion plan of $33 million," said Rajeeb Samdani, managing director of the company, yesterday.
Samdani also said there is a huge demand for frozen and processed food in Bangladesh.
He was briefing Nisha Desai Biswal, USAID assistant administrator from its headquarters in Washington, USA, as Biswal visited the company's factory in Gazipur.
Biswal, who was appointed by US President Barack Obama on July 2010, is now an official tour to Bangladesh. Golden Harvest is a USAID-PRICE partner project.
Samdani said they would set up collection centres for horticultural products to eliminate the post-harvest losses and intermediary costs.
The company will initially establish five collection centres at the most strategic points of Bangladesh to buy agro products directly from the farmers.
The official said such a move will reduce their production outlay because the costs associated with the middlemen will go down significantly.
The company will also set up a countrywide cold storage chain, covering six divisions. A central cold storage depot in Dhaka will link 24 storehouses and 15,000 refrigerators with retail outlets across the country.
The company that posted a Tk 35 crore turnover last year also plans to focus on 'ready to eat' products.
The official said 40-45 percent of the earnings came from exports.
"We want to satisfy our customers by providing 'ready to eat' foods at comparatively low prices, for example, at Tk 35 a meal," said Samdani.
French fries, chicken nuggets, paratha, chicken burger patty, spring roll, fish fingers, vegetable samosa are some of the products that the company exports now.
It also plans a massive scale launch of these products on the local market, in line with the changing food habit in Bangladesh.
Chief Operating Officer of the company Mohius Samad Chowdhury said they will open 2,000 outlets across the country by next year to sell these food products.
The company will keep the prices of its ago products same round the year, said the official.
The products for export and the local market will be of same standards, he added.
Golden Harvest Agro Industry, which started its operations in May 2006, exports to Bhutan, UAE, Australia, UK, Spain, Belgium, Italy, US and Canada under the brand names of Golden Harvest and Shahjalal.
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