GUWAHATI: Mizoram’s first mega food park is poised to provide direct and indirect employment to 5,000 persons and benefit about 25,000 farmers, an official statement said on Monday.
Speaking at the virtual inauguration ceremony of the Zoram Mega Food Park located at Khamrang in Kolasib district, Union food processing industries minister, Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the park would leverage an additional investment of about Rs 250 crore in about 30 food processing units in the park for a turnover of about Rs 450 to Rs 500 crore annually.
“The park will provide direct and indirect employment to 5,000 persons and benefit about 25,000 farmers in the core processing centre and primary processing centre catchment areas,” Badal said.
The Union minister said that the modern infrastructure for food processing created at the mega food park would benefit the farmers, growers, processors and consumers of Mizoram and its adjoining areas immensely and prove to be a big boost to the growth of the food processing sector in the state.
The food processing industry ministry had approved the facility to give an impetus to the growth of the food processing sector in Mizoram.
The park, set up in 55 acre land at a project cost of Rs. 75.20 crore, is promoted by Zoram Mega Food Park Pvt. Ltd. M/s Zoram Mega Food Park Pvt. Ltd. has been
Under the Mega Food Park Scheme, the Centre provides financial assistance up to Rs 50 crore per project.
Currently, 18 mega food park projects are under implementation in various states and 19 have already become functional. Six of them are in the Northeastern region. Two mega food parks in the region – Assam and Mizoram – are operational now.
Badal shared that, so far, 88 projects supported by the ministry have been sanctioned in the Northeastern region and 41 have been implemented.
“Projects worth Rs 1000 crore approximately have been sanctioned with a subsidy support of over Rs 520 crore. She said that 88 projects when fully completed, would create processing and preservation capacity for 8.66 lakh metric tonnes to handle agro produce worth Rs. 2,166 crores,” she said.
DoNER minister, Jitendra Singh, said that the Prime Minister has asked all ministries to allocate projects in the Northeastern states for greater development of the region.
In a tweet, Singh said that the project “is a giant initiative to utilise the unexplored potential of food and fruit resources in Mizoram.”