SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said the people of the state should look towards Bangladesh as a country with trade opportunities.
“Half of the time, we are worried about Bangladeshis coming in. That is a worry for us but I think we need to see this as an opportunity,” he said while speaking at the two-day workshop on ‘Food Processing Opportunities in Meghalaya’.
The workshop is organised by the Directorate of Food Processing in partnership with Meghalaya Institute of Entrepreneurship (MIE) and Meghalaya Basin Management Agency (MBMA) held at the State Convention Centre in Shillong.
He pointed to lucrative careers in extending trade such as exports to Bangladesh and beyond the border where entrepreneurs can trade through Chittagong and the rest of the world.
“We share close to 440 km of international boundary with Bangladesh. This is a huge opportunity for us, to market and sell our products to nearby neighbouring countries and beyond,” he said.
Sangma also stressed the need for participation by farmers and rural entrepreneurs for the food processing industry to move forward.
Agriculture Production Commissioner KN Kumar spoke about the problem of plenty in the state as there are surpluses which have started occurring and marketing of even the primary commodities is beginning to become a problem for the farmers.
He informed of an incident in a certain place in Jaintia Hills district where farmers have dumped tomatoes on the road which he said is not a good sign.
Pointing to the potential of food processing, he said the production of fruits in the state is 3 lakh metric tonnes in 2011-12 to 4.43 lakh metric tonnes in 2017-18. We have recorded an annual growth rate of 6.7 per cent in fruit production alone which is the highest growth rate in the whole of NER.
For the same period, the annual growth rate of vegetables is 5.74 per cent and the annual growth rate of spices is 3.72 per cent.
“We are already experiencing the problem of plenty and if we do not start making right investments in Food Processing sector, we will be accentuating the farmers’ distress,” Kumar said.
Despite the strong horticulture base, a significant amount of the produce is wasted.
He added, “Enormous wastage is cause because of lack of food processing opportunities for the state.”
