Kolkata: Tata group company Tinplate Company of India Ltd (TCIL) — the largest tinplate maker of India — is gearing up to tap the potential of food packaging market, according to the  managing director Bhusen Raina.  He was speaking to the reporters on the sidelines of a tinplate consumers meet organised by TCIL  here on Wednesday evening. 

Mr Raina said that India has the potential to emerge as the food factory of the world, as it is  one of the leading producers of fruits, vegetables, milk, agricultural and marine products. But  only two per cent of these products are now being processed and packed. 

“Thus, there is a huge untapped opportunity which could be leveraged for the growth of the  packaging industry. We need to tap this opportunity by supplying world-class tinplates to the  packaging industry and thus become a global player with some focussed markets,” he said. 

That is why, TCIL has taken up a Rs 46-crore debottlenecking exercise in its production process  with an aim to increasing its operating scale from a capacity of 90,000 tonne of tinplate per  annum to 1,45,000 tonne. The process is likely to be completed by July. 

To implement this, TCIL has engaged French major Arcelor and Japanese major Nippon Steel as  consultants for process and technology improvement. 

Mr Raina said that apart from making world class tinplate, can-makers need to be provided with  cost effective, innovative yet eco-friendly, WTO (World Trade Organisation) norms compliant  packaging solutions for consumer convenience. 

The Tinplate Promotion Council, a conglomerate of steel producers, tinplate makers and can  fabricators, has already started working on that.