BHUBANESWAR:Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday sought the cooperation of the State Government in exploring the possibility to market food products of the State in Gulf countries.In a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Pradhan said prominent business groups of UAE having significant presence in food and beverages trade have shown interest to scan the Odisha market for possible investments.
Noting that he had made a strong case about comparative advantages of Odisha in the areas like infrastructure, agriculture, food and marines products during his recent meeting with several investors in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the Union Minister said, “I made a special reference to the Paradip Port which has the potential to emerge as a food processing hub for GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries.”
“I also highlighted varies ago-climatic zones, forest coverage, water availability, trained and skilled manpower of Odisha in addition to our huge range of authentic Odia food products, which have good potential to find a place in GCC countries’ food markets,” the letter said.
Enclosing a list of companies and their representatives with whom he had interacted during his four-day visit to UAE, Pradhan said he had requested them to participate in the full value chain of the State’s food sector with investment.
He said a senior officer of Safal, the fruit and vegetable initiative of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) made a presentation promoting various products from Odisha such as organic goat meet and branding Mayurbhanj Black Bengal goat in line with New Zealand lamb; non-Basmato rice from western Odisha; marine products from Chilka; turmeric from Kandhamal and ginger from Koraput.
Prominent business groups like Emaar, Lulu, Al Maya, AKM and NMC showed interest to send their teams to explore Odisha market before deciding to invest.
“I strongly feel that there is a huge scope to enhance export of food, processed food, agriculture and marine products to the GCC countries, especially UAE,” he said.Linking the farmers and producers of marine products and small and medium industries involved in the food processing sector with GCC market will be in the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to double the income of the farmers by 2022. he added.
