Pineapple and mandarin squash, jam and candy unit

This unit turns fresh fruit into squash, jam, fruit candy and dried orange peel, packed in bottles and pouches under your own name. It runs on pineapple in the monsoon months and on mandarin oranges in winter, so the machines are not idle for half the year.

The Terai villages around Siliguri grow a lot of pineapple, especially around Bidhannagar in Phansidewa block. Mandarins come down from the orchards of Mirik, Bijanbari and Kurseong. Both fruits are mostly sold fresh, and prices fall when the harvest peaks. NABARD's 2023-24 credit plan for Darjeeling says the district suits mandarin orange and pineapple, and puts the credit potential for food and agro processing at ₹8.02 crore.

You need an FSSAI food licence, a fruit pulper, steam kettles, a bottle filler and a clean, tiled room with safe water. Learn to balance sugar and sourness and to stop squash from spoiling on the shelf. The hard part is cash: you must buy a season's fruit in a few weeks and then sell the stock over many months, while big squash brands already fill shop shelves.

Sell to hill hotels, bakeries and sweet shops, and to grocers across Siliguri. Souvenir shops in Darjeeling town and online stores reach visitors who want to take a taste of the hills home.