UPDATE-1-Emami unit to invest 4 bln rupees in Ethiopia

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KOLKATA Aug 3 (Reuters) - Emami Biotech Ltd, a unit of Emami Group, is planning to invest 4 billion rupees to develop biofuel plantation in Ethiopia, a company official said on Monday.

"The Ethiopian government has already alloted the land and the first phase of commercial plantation has begun," Aditya V Agarwal, director, Emami Group, told reporters at a press conference.

Commercial production has begun on 30,000 acres of land, he said.

The project, with an annual capacity to produce 100,000 tonnes of crude biofuel and edible oil, would be fully operational in 4-6 years.

"Bio-fuel would be exported to India for producing bio-diesel and the edible oil produced in Ethiopia will be used for captive consumption," Agarwal added.

The company already has a bio-fuel plant at Haldia in the eastern state of West Bengal, with a daily capacity of 300 tonnes of bio-fuel and 1,000 tonnes of edible oil, he said.

NEW EDIBLE OIL PLANTS

Emami Biotech is planning to develop two edible oil plants in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu at a total investment of 3 billion rupees, Manish Goenka, director, Emani Group, told Reuters on the sidelines of the news conference.

"We have already signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gujarat government for the developing the plant and in Tamil Nadu we are scouting for appropriate site near the ports," he said, adding the initial capacity at the Gujarat plant would be around 1,000 tonnes of edible oil a day.

(Reporting by Niladri Bhattacharya; Editing by Sunil Nair)