JK, CWCCPL tie-up for mkts of horiculture prod

Srinagar, Aug 19: Jammu and Kashmir government has arranged a marketing tie-up for its horticulture produce with Central Warehousing Cold Chain Private Limited (CWCCPL), an official spokesman said today.

He said the CWCCPL has set up 500 MT capacity state-of-art controlled atmosphere cold storage at Kundli in the vicinity of Asia's largest terminal fruit market, Azadpur Delhi.

The objective of the tie-up is to utilise modern cold chain technology available with the CWCCPL for enhancing shelf life of fresh fruit for giving recognition to the horticulture produce of the state all over the country, he said.

Under the arrangement, the J&K Horticulture Produce Marketing Corporation (JKHPMC) would jointly work with CWCCPL and procure A-Grade quality apples at competitive prices followed by packing in corrugated fibre boxes and proper branding.

He said the mechanism for joint working between CWCCPL and JKHPMC was discussed at a high level meeting chaired by the Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Abdul Aziz Zargar here today.

The minister while welcoming the initiative CWCCPL and JKHPMC called for exploring other areas for collaboration to give fillip to cold chain facilities in the state.

He hoped the joint working arrangement would help to share marketing tie-up and other related facilities between the two corporations in post harvest phase thereby helping fruit growers to get better share of their produce.

He said such joint ventures would relieve the fruit growers from exploitation at the hands of various intermediaries in the whole chain right from procurement to marketing.

He urged for introducing cold chain technology in a big way to promote horticulture industry on modern lines.

UNI