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Agriculture Minister lists food processing sector as catalyst for prosperity
S.A.S. Nagar, February 24:
Reiterating the wholehearted commitment of the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government to make ‘Rangla Punjab’, a reality, the Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal today exhorted the industrialists to invest in the State especially in food processing sector and called industrial sector the catalyst to propel overall prosperity in Punjab.
Addressing the session on Agri-Food Processing during the last day of the 5th Progressive Punjab Investor Summit 2023, the Minister said that Punjab is gifted with fertile land, good quality canal water, agri experts and a premier research as well as academic institution in the form of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana hence it is an ideal place for the investors.
Citing the importance of dairy farming, the Minister made a mention of Sri Muktsar Sahib having the potential to emerge as the fish farming hub and emphasized proper marketing to make this sphere grow by leaps and bounds. Coming to the aspect of ensuring healthy food for the people, the Minister batted for the investors to concentrate on establishing cold stores across the State.
Among the speakers, George Koovor from PepsiCo called the farmers from Punjab biggest partners of the PepsiCo in ensuring positive and sustainable food habits for the consumers. He also emphasized the importance of Renewable energy usage in the manufacturing process of the company.
Sandeep Goyal from Nestle India spoke working in close coordination with the farming community. He further elaborated that the Nestle uses farm cooling tanks to keep the milk procured from the farmers always fresh and chilled, Bio digesters to convert manure into bio gas besides carrying out milk transportation through electric vehicles.
Anay Shukla from Wellspun stressed the importance of logistics factor and as part of this, disclosed that they are engaged in the field of sustainable warehouses which are all Solar enabled with commitment to the use of green technologies.
