With the inauguration of second multi fruit and vegetable processing plant at Alamgrh, Punjab is all set to herald a juice revolution in a big way in order to encourage crop diversification and to find suitable alternative for wheat ? paddy cropping pattern.
Subodh Kant Sahai Union minister for food processing industry inaugurated the plant in the presence of the chief minister Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal,on Monday. The plant has been commissioned by Punjab Agro Juices Limited at a cost of Rs 40 crore.
While addressing gathering of fruit growers, Badal said that to achieve this goal, the Punjab government has set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)- the council for citrus and agri juicing to promote the cultivation of citrus in the state. He said that special program have been implemented to develop the horticulture in Punjab and two multi- fruit processing units at total cost of Rs 80 crores at Hoshiarpur and Abohar with a processing capacity of 80,000 mts.
Badal said that these plants were the first of its kind with a capacity to process different varieties of citrus fruits like kinnow, mosambbi, orange, lemon etc. and fruits and vegetables like tomato, carrots, musk melon, water melon, mango, guava, apple, pear, strawberry, gourds, cucumber, papaya etc.
Expressing the needs to encourage horticulture, the chief minister said it was the right time to motivate the farming community to shift from the traditional cropping pattern to high value cash crops like fruits, vegetables, oil seeds etc. and demanded from the Centre to set up more processing plants, mega food parks and cold storage chains in Punjab with heavy investments to enhance the income of the farmers.