Rakshit Phytopharma to set up Rs 30 cr medicinal plant project in Bengal

KOLKATA: Rakshit Phytopharma on Tuesday announced its plans for setting up an ayurvedic herbs and medicinal plants unit in West Bengal at an investment of Rs 30 crore. The company will be involved in cultivation, processing and extraction of these herbs and medicinal plants and will supply the extracts to pharmaceutical and FMCG industries in India and abroad.

According to industry estimates, the market size of ayurveda is estimated to be around Rs 8,000 crore and is growing at a rate of 10% -15% year on year. Around Rs 1,500 crore worth ayurvedic medicine are exported every year. Of this, 60% is crude herbs, 30% are finished products shipped abroad for direct sales and 10% are partially prepared products.

“The cultivation project will be set up at Chaltaberia, Duttapukur, 24Pgs(N)”, said Mr.Probir Rakshit, director of Rakshit Phytopharma.
The company started cultivation of ayurvedic herbs and medicinal plants in October last year. “We have taken the land on lease from local villagers.The villagers have been given opportunity to work with us in farming our products," he said.

“Ours is not just an ayurvedic manufacturing unit which utilises only raw herbs. We produce pure extracts of herbs like Aloe Vera among others as raw material for herbal formulations," said Mr Rakshit.

"We have invested Rs 5 crores initially and we plan to invest Rs 30 crores by 2014," he further informed.