Reliance retail to rollout in June

Forward Bloc may oppose it tooth and nail, but Reliance Fresh outlets will start springing up in the city within a month. The company plans to set up 200 Fresh outlets in the city and suburbs within two years. And, if Bloc continues with its resistance, Mukesh Ambani's company will procure agriculture produce from outside the state. Reliance Retail will make its intention known to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who's been instrumental in wooing the Rs 4,000-crore investment, by next week. Reliance already has a supporter in mayor Bikash Bhattacharya, who has resolved to hand over the KMC-run Manicktala market to Reliance Retail. "If needed, I'll attend the Left Front meeting.... I am not scared of their questioning," the mayor said on Wednesday. Industry department sources, already in the know about Reliance Retail's extreme decision, said the company was no longer buying the government's apparent helplessness in granting the mandatory licence under the Agricultural Produce Marketing Control Act, thanks to the brouhaha by Forward Bloc. Only 5% of the commodities in Fresh outlets will comprise fruits and vegetables. Reliance Retail Ltd is now gearing up to purchase these agri-products from farmers outside the state. The APMC licence would have been necessary only if the company procured the products directly from farmers in Bengal. The other major components of the outlets will be groceries and dairy products. Reliance has been desperately trying to kickstart its agri-retail chain in Bengal since the CM announced the project last year. But the venture has hit a deadlock. "It's clear from the project submitted by RRL that there's no threat to farmers or small businessmen, as alleged by Bloc," an official said. In fact, based on the statistics provided by the government's Economic Review 2004-05, RRL has calculated that the volume of business from 200 Fresh shops would only constitute 0.5% of the entire Bengal market. "At the moment, 70% of the agri-retail value is being swallowed by only a handful of middlemen. This will stop once there is competition in the market." When told of Reliance's resolution, Bloc leader and West Bengal Marketing Board chairman Naren Chatterjee said: "If Reliance is trying to make forays into Bengal in this way, then we shall have to think of new strategies."