Kolkata-based Emami group company, Emami Biotech, has decided to spend Rs 400 crore (around $80 million) in a jatropha plantation project in Oromia, Ethiopia over the next six years.

It should be noted that Emami Biotech has already acquired around 30,000 acres for the facility, and have started first phase for jatropha cultivation. The company will pump in 30 per cent of the project cost, with the rest to be mobilized from banks and financial institutions.

Apart from jatropha, the company intends to grow sunflower, castor, pulses and herbs like menthol in the East African country.

The company believes once operations start in full swing, it would be able to churn out 100,000 tones of crude bio-fuel per annum, which will be further exported to India for producing bio-diesel at its own plant at Haldia.