The 4th CII Pineapple Festival was held at Pragya Bhavan of Agartala on Saturday aiming at using the latest technology for value addition of pineapple produced in the state of Tripura and thus increases the scope of export of the fruit so that farmers get better return.
Inaugurated by Tripura Governor Prof Kaptan Singh Solanki in presence of several other dignitaries including S K Barua, chairman, CII North East Council, Dr Sudha Mysore, CEO, Agrinnovate India Ltd, Kiran Gitte, special secretary and director, Department of Industries and Commerce, government of Tripura, the festival also emphasized on branding the ‘Queen’ and ‘Kew’ variety of pineapples the State which are considered as one of the finest in taste and sweetness.
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Also read: Tripura supplies 193 MT pineapples to Bangladesh, other parts of India
Discussions were kept on to encourage the pineapple farmers who from various parts of the state took part in the festival and to let them aware that the ‘Queen’ pineapple of the State which has already got the GI certification and has reached the global market but further needs a more inclusive and increasing the depth of their penetration across the value chain to ensure end-to-end having backward and forward linkages through appropriate intervention in the policy, branding of the fruit.
There were also discussions on ways and means of improving the value chain for pineapple, showcase infrastructure, packaging technologies, logistic solutions, research work and best practices in other parts of the country.
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While addressing the gathering, Governor Prof Kaptan Singh Solanki emphasized on doubling farmers’ income by 2022 in line with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He highlighted that pineapple producing aspirational districts need to work towards the quality of products and work towards exporting them which will ensure progress and development of the state.
S K Barua, chairman, CII North East Council highlighted and appreciated the efforts of state government trying to squeeze more potential out of the State Fruit.
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Last year, 30 MT of the fruit was exported to Dubai and Doha and this year Bangladesh has been added to the list along with local hubs in Assam, West Bengal and Delhi and overall 130 MT pineapples have been exported till date.
Dr Sudha Mysore, CEO, Agrinnovate India Ltd while addressing at the inaugural session highlighted the initiatives of the organisation in the agricultural sector and also for the training of farmers.
The State government of Tripura is committed to develop the food processing sector and already the infrastructure at the Food Park is ready and investments would follow soon. Moreover, the focus is to increase the export besides emphasizing more on the food processing sector to double the farmers’ income.
Besides farmers and entrepreneurs, various experts from outside Tripura in pineapple research, exports, infrastructure, logistics and financing institutions deliberated in the Tripura Pineapple Festival 2019 were a display of food products of pineapple was kept to attract the attention of the participants.