Blue Star to set up pack houses in Punjab

The Punjab Agri Export Corporation Ltd (PAGREXO) has entrusted Blue Star Ltd for setting up five pack houses across the state for grading and packaging agricultural and horticultural products with a project cost of about Rs 5 crore. The corporation would soon sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the company. The project is likely to be completed in six to eight months.

Speaking to Business Standard, PAGREXO MD Vikas Garg said, “We have selected Blue Star Ltd for setting up five pack houses across the state at Mushkabad (Ludhiana), Saholi and Lalgarh (Patiala), Kangmai (Hoshiarpur) and Babri (Gurdaspur), after floating tenders for the project. The company would take around six to eight months to complete the project.” The sites for the location of fruit and vegetable pack house centres has been identified based on the progressive growers in the area, area under cultivation, potential for increase in area under fruits and vegetables, access to markets and efforts made towards distant marketing and exports.

The state government has got a nod from Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) for setting up five pack houses and a grant of Rs 5.35 crore as the cost of the project. Each Pack House would be spread across 0.5 acres and will have mechanical grading line, pre-cooling chamber, cold storage, a reefer van and a pick-up van.

According to officials, the farmers in these locations are already marketing their produce in the neighbouring yards or supplying to the retail chains located close to the growing areas but because of lack of proper transport arrangements, they are unable to sell their produce to the distant markets. It is worth noting that during the last few years, area and production of fruits and vegetables in Punjab is increasing continuously. The production of fruits which was 1.1 million metric tonnes during 2007-08, increased to 1.2 million metric tonnes in 2008-09 and to 1.4 million metric tonnes in 2009-10. Similarly, the production of vegetables which was 2.5 million metric tonnes during 2007-08 increased to 2.8 million metric tonnes in 2007-08 and to 3.4 million metric tonnes in 2008-09.

Earlier, Delhi-based Global AgriSystem acted as a consultant for the project in preparing basic plan and tender documents. On the lines of these pack houses, the state government further wants to set up five more pack houses in the state.