After breaking all previous records in wheat procurement this year, the Punjab Government is now targeting to develop the state as a national hub for vegetables export.
The Punjab government decided to treat vegetables export as a ?priority sector?. The state government is contemplating a series of measures to develop the state as a national hub for vegetable exports. A package of incentives to boost vegetables exports from the state, especially to the Middle East , Europe and South East have been initiated.
Harcharn Bains, media advisor to the chief minister, Parkash Singh Badal said, ?First it was the green revolution that added focus on food grains to help the nation build buffer stock. Then came white revolution that catapulted the state into a milk surplus state and now the focus would be on increasing vegetable production using Punjab as a major export base.?
Bains added that the Punjab government would extend the facility of uninterrupted power supply and direct supply lines from the urban feeders to pre-cooling chambers and refrigeration units on the farms of the exporters. The entire expenditure for shifting of the electricity line from rural to urban feeders to would be borne by the Punjab Agri Export Corporation (PAGREXCO). Power for cooling chambers and refrigerated vans would be supplied as per agriculture rates instead of commercial.
Bains informed that the Punjab CM would shortly meet the Union agriculture minister Shard Pawar to seek preferential status to Punjab for vegetable exports. The CM would also press for expanding the present scale of trade through the Attari-Wagha border to turn it into a full scale commercial zone, he added.
Another demand that Punjab CM is going to raise before Pawar will be of giving certification powers to quarantine centre at Amritsar bordering Pakistan. At present there is a quarantine plant centre at Ludhiana in Punjab which checks the spread of deceases bacteria from the import and export of food items, flowers, fruits and vegetables. However, its jurisdiction is only the Union territory of Chandigarh to issue certificates that the importer possesses post entry quarantine facility for the imported planting material.