Sudimalla, a small village near the coal town of Yellendu, emerged as a major hub of chilli and turmeric processing in the State over the last two years.
The Girijan Cooperative Corporation (GCC)’s state-of-the-art processing plant in the village has earned the village a distinctive image as a leading producer of chilli and turmeric powder, the two essential ingredients in all Indian culinary preparations.
Big strides
The processing plant equipped with sophisticated machinery has made significant strides by supplying about 1,500 quintals of chilli powder and around 300 quintals of turmeric powder to the tribal welfare residential educational institutions including Ashram schools across the State last year, sources said. The plant supplies its produce to ITDA educational institutions in Bhadrachalam, Utnoor, Mannanur and Yeturunagaram.
The processing unit procures fine quality chilli from the producers mainly the tribal farmers in Charla and other parts of Bhadrachalam Agency. Most of the turmeric comes from Nizamabad district, which is the largest producer of the crop in the State.
No cold storage
However, the processing unit continues to grapple with lack of cold storage facility to preserve the raw material.
This has made the plant to depend on private cold storage units to store the raw material procured from farmers, sources added.
The fully automatic processing plant at Sudimalla produces best quality chilli and turmeric powder under the brand name ‘Girijan’ under hygienic conditions, said K. Satish, GCC Yellendu Branch Manager.
Quality is the hallmark of our “Girijan” products, he said, adding that plans were afoot to take up production of chilli and turmeric powder on a large-scale soon.
