Thiruvananthapuram:
Sandal oil from Kerala's own famed forests would hit the market as 'Marayoor, pure and natural', from Tuesday. The exclusive fragrance of Kerala, processed in the state-owned sandalwood factory at Marayoor, would be coming in three different quantities and it is priced from Rs 1,500 for 5 g to Rs 7,500 for 25 g. Ten grams of sandal oil would cost Rs 3,000.
The State Government allowed the Kerala Forest Department to set up a factory for distilling sandal oil against the backdrop of closure of private sandal oil extraction units in the state in 2005.
The factory set up by the Kerala Forest Development Corporation(KFDC) in Marayoor in
Idukki district, the biggest stretch of sandal forest in Kerala, at an expenditure of nearly Rs 2 crore started operations this August. Within eight months from the date of getting final approval from the government, the factory started trial operations.
The company has plans to market the oil in designer bottles as gift packets. The price for bulk sales of more than 1 kg, which would be undertaken after meeting the retail requirements, has been pegged at Rs 2 lakh per kg.
K B Ganesh Kumar, Minister for Forests would formally inaugurate the marketing of 'Marayoor' at a function to be held at the Press Club here on Tuesday at 4 p m.The meet would be presided over by V S Sivakumar, Minister for Transport and Devaswom. Forest Principal Secretary Sajan Peter, Principal Forest Chief Conservator A R Rajaraja Varma, Additional Principal Chief Conservator N V Thrivedi Babu, KFDC Managing Director Amarnath Shetty and Chairman M Manoharan Pillai would participate.
'Marayoor Pure and Natural' will be available in all the divisional offices of the KFDC and Vanasree outlets in the state.