Workshop Organized by CII – North Bengal on Food Processing Sector at Sikkim

By Hirak. D (TNI Siliguri)  |  TNI Editing Siliguri

Webdesk, TNI Gangtok, March 23rd 2017: Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) North Bengal Zonal Council in partnership with FACE and Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) organized one day Workshop on Catalysing Investment in the Food Processing Sector in Sikkim on 21 March 2017 at Hotel Tashi Delek, Sikkim (Gangtok). Mr Naresh Agarwal, Past Chairman CII NB Zonal Council & Director, Shilpangan Industrial Park, Siliguri addressed the session by welcoming all the speakers and delegates in the workshop. He spoke about the purpose of the workshop is to catalyze investments in the food processing sector and also disseminate information on the various schemes of MoFPI. The food processing industry in the Sikkim region is still developing and is poised for achieving greater heights in the coming years. Mr. Khorlo Bhutia, Principal Director cum Secretary, Horticulture & Cash Crop Development Department, Government of Sikkim said the workshop aims to categorize and to identify the different Food Processing sectors for investment that will help create new opportunities to encourage and inspire the young entrepreneurs to build an enterprise which will help generate employment for the mass through which progress of Sikkim is viable.

For development of the entrepreneurs, the need of creating infrastructure for post-service management, processing, facilities for branding, packaging, credit linkages and marketing are important. At present 65,000 families are registered with APEDA and in Sikkim Organic Farming, 76169 hectares is certified as per global standard as per guidelines of National Programming Practices. 18,000 hectares are used for Large Cardamom, 12,000 hectares for Ginger, 4000 hectares for Turmeric with includes 34,000 hectares for organic spices and balance is for vegetables and other process. The total number of Sikkim population is 6.1 Lakh, however the floating population is more than 20 Lakhs, to meet the market demand there is a requirement for value addition, marketing investment for food processing in Sikkim. After 2018, the products that are grown in Sikkim will get branding and packaged in the state and it’ll be transferred as a processed products in the market. The investors are welcomed in Sikkim, where the Government will provide the incentive schemes. Dr. Khorlo Bhutia requested CII to help in bringing investment in Food processing sector in Sikkim and also coordinate with the Govt. Departments to organize a meeting and invite all the interested stakeholders specially farmers and businessman from the neighboring states.

Photos: CII North Bengal

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