Statesman News Service
HALDIA, 24 JUNE:
The Union finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, today said there was a need to upgrade the food processing industries in the state to preserve excess supply of vegetables and fruit.
He was speaking at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of a new manufacturing edible oil refinery unit at Haldia this morning. Emphasising the need to upgrade infrastructure concerning cold storage, Mr Mukherjee said the state produces a huge quantity of tropical fruit but as a result of the dearth of proper storage units, a large amount of these fruit are destroyed each year. He also said that despite having a huge potential, the main constraint faced by food processing industries lies in the process of setting up proper hygienic infrastructure and there was a need to set up hygienic cold storage units to meet this deficiency. He also reiterated that at present, India imports 10 lakh tons of edible oil from various countries to bridge the demand-supply gap in the country.
He said that though India is the second largest producer of fruit after Brazil and of vegetables after China, the farmers over here do not get a proper price for their production.
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