Chilly park if state provides land: Ramesh

Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, Feb 3 (UNI) Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh today offered to set up a chilli park here, provided the Andhra Pradesh Government arranged for 250 acres of land.

Speaking after laying the foundation stone for the Spices Board's Chilly Quality Evaluation Laboratory here he said private entrepreneurs should be persuaded to set up factories in making value added products of chilly, termaric and coriander.

The minister is not in favour of forming a separate board for dealing king chillies. "A sepearte board is no solution with heavy establishment expenditure" , he observed.

Promising to upgrade the Spices Board office in Guntur he said several consignments of chillies were rejected by the importing countries as they contained pesticide residues. "Our endeavour is to produce pesticide-free chillies, we want to encourage use of natural manure and pesticides", he said.

The laboratory equipped with modern scientific gadgets would help maintain quality parameters for chilly exports.

The state accounts for 60 per cent of country's total chilly production.

UNI