Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Tuesday launched a website and brochure for the upcoming international event — ‘Food Processing Investors Summit’ — scheduled to be organised in Jharkhand in the month of April. The summit will bring players in food processing industries to setup facilities in the State. The two-day summit will begin from April 23 and will focus on core competencies of Jharkhand besides facilitating agreement between industry and State Government to promote food processing industry in Jharkhand.
The CM said developed Jharkhand can be made by promoting agriculture, allied industries and by promoting only mining based industries. There is a scope for food processing industry in Jharkhand which is rich in mineral reserves and produces abundant quantity of fruits, vegetables and agricultural products, said CM.
The summit will be organised by SREI Frontier Consortium which will use its pan-India network to pull companies for the summit and apprise them of land banks, food processing park and also avenues for industry players. The CM expressed that preservation; processing and export of farm produce can benefit rural population that depends on agriculture for livelihood.
CM maintained food processing can be developed as an industry because Jharkhand is number three in the production of green peas, sixth among tomato producing states but it needs a market place for the products. He also shared the wish of several investors he interacted with at Vibrant Gujarat Summit of setting up food processing units in Jharkhand.
Secretary Industries, Himani Pandey highlighted geographical location of Jharkhand and its proximity to prominent seaports — Paradip, Haldia and Kolkata — which offers an opportunity for agri-products to explore markets outside the country especially those nations coming under South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
There are opportunities to sell products in the country as well as in SAARC countries and the summit will prove to be an good initiative to provide markets by putting up supply for exporting organic food products, milk and milk products, forest products, fisheries products.