Honey, pickle to be available in tubes on the footsteps of Nalen Gur

Kolkata: Buoyed by the tremendous response of date palm jaggery (Nalen Gur) in tubes, the West Bengal Khadi and Village Industries Board (WBKVIB) will soon introduce honey and pickle popularly known as 'kasundi' in tubes as well.

"The tubes will be similar to the Nolen Gur tubes that were introduced more than two years ago. The packaging of the tubes of honey and kasundi will be developed by the Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP), that has been instrumental for the toothpaste-styled tube of Nolen Gur," a senior official of WBKVIB said.

It may be mentioned that the Khadi Board has already come up with a state-of-the-art common production centre (CPC) for Nalen Gur at Krishnaganj, Bhaganghat in Nadia district. The machine, that has been procured from Ahmedabad, is capable of packing jaggery in 30 tubes in a minute.

The CPC has been operational from December last year. The total investment has been around Rs 2.5 crore.

"We have witnessed that if the machine works 8 hours a day, it can produce 14,400 such tubes in a day. If it works for 4 months, which is the usual time when date palm jaggery is available, it will shell out 14.4 lakh tubes. During the remaining period, the machine will be utilised in making tubes of honey and kasundi," the official added.

"We have had a session of talks with the Khadi Board and have come into an agreement for packaging honey and kasundi. The official nod will come soon," said Bidhan Das, deputy director at IIP Kolkata, who recently visited the CPC with officials of Khadi Board.

It may be mentioned that around 20 members of a society in the area that manufactures excellent quality jaggery, are presently working in the factory, while 100 of them are indirectly involved with the supply of raw materials.

It may be mentioned that Nolen Gur tubes that have a shelf life of 180 days, are available in 100 gm and 150 gm packs at all Biswa Bangla and Khadi stores in Kolkata and also with leading sweets chains. The price is Rs 50 for 100 gm and Rs 70 for 150 gm.

Apart from domestic customers, the Nolen Gur tubes are very much in demand among the foreigners visiting the city.