The Agrofood Trade Centre has appealed to the Director, Industries and Commerce and Industries Commissioner Sigy Thomas Vaidyan to provide more infrastructure for export promotion of agricultural commodities.
During Ms. Vaidyan’s visit to Agrofood Trade Centre, established on a 30-acre campus, at Sikkandar Chavadi here, founder and CMD of the centre S. Rethinavelu submitted a memorandum to her, in which he said a state-of-the-art lab for issue of export certificates for agricultural products, including organic certification in Public-Private Partnership mode, would simplify and motivate more exports from southern districts.
The centre would run the lab by appointing necessary additional qualified personnel at its cost provided 100% subsidy was given for the equipment. Testing fee charged should only be the cost as the centre was a non-profit organisation, he said.
To develop new entrepreneurship, product-specific incubation centres had to be established. Those centres should have all equipment, including primary and secondary machinery for production of value-added products from millets, palmyrah, moringa, etc., he said.
Ms. Vaidyan appreciated the infrastructure made available at the cold storage unit, packaging unit, pre-processing unit and food product analytical and research laboratory, and hoped that it would become a beam of light in agri-processing in the country, a press release issued here on Thursday said.
