Vegetable farming is set to get a boost in Punjab with a Spanish company setting up a state of the art Rs 350 crore vegetable processing facility in Mohali. The processing unit would give a ready market to progressive farmers of Mohali and neighbouring districts of the State.
Union Minister for Food Processing Industry Harsimrat Badal on Thursday said that she visited the factory premises of Conelodos de Navarra at Mohali and assured the promoters that her Ministry will extend all possible support to them besides hand-holding them for their Indian investments.
She said that with the success of this unit, she was confident that more companies from the Navarra region of Spain would establish their processing units in Punjab.
Company president and CEO Benito Jimenez briefed the Union Minister that the new plant would create around 500 jobs besides benefitting 5,000 farmers directly. The company would also focus on potato processing which will open up a new market for potato farmers of Doaba region, she said adding that the Company has already signed a MoU with Invest India.
“We have created the necessary awareness about the need to add value to agri produce and even hand held farmers by hiring consultants to enable them to form their own self help groups, clusters or join mega food parks,” she said.
She said that two mega food parks at Fazilka, which was dealing in vegetables and Kapurthala which was specializing in maize processing, had become operational. “My ministry is creating necessary infrastructure for food processing industry and also creating forward and backward linkages to facilitate farmers and industrialists both. We are confident Conelodos de Navarra will also benefit from these initiatives”, she added.