Castor is one of Ahmedabad district's main crops, and Gujarat grows most of India's castor. A small cold-press unit can sell oil to soap, hair-oil and chemical buyers, and the leftover cake to farmers as manure.
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This unit buys castor seed from farmers and traders and cleans it. It then presses the seed cold in an expeller (a screw press that squeezes out oil without heat or chemical solvents), and sells the filtered oil and the leftover cake.
NABARD's 2023-24 credit plan for Ahmedabad lists castor among the district's main crops, with paddy, wheat and cotton, and puts food and agro-processing credit potential at Rs 1559.55 crore. Gujarat grows most of India's castor, and the state's chemical makers use castor oil as a raw material.
You need a shed, a seed cleaner, an expeller, a filter press, storage tanks and money to buy seed at harvest. Seed prices swing a lot between seasons, and large crushing plants make ordinary oil more cheaply, so your edge is cold-pressed oil sold at a better price. Filling oil into small bottles for hair or skin use counts as making a cosmetic, which needs a licence from the state drug office. Oil for medicines needs stricter standards and lab tests, so start with cosmetic and industrial grades. Castor cake is poisonous to animals, so label and store it carefully.
Sell cold-pressed oil in small bottles online, to makers of hair oil, soap and ayurvedic products, and to chemical traders. Sell the cake as manure to farms, nurseries and organic growers.
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What the district has
See everything the district has, and loses, on the Ahmedabad district page.
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