The Punjab government’s ambitious plan to set up terminal market complexes at Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and Muktsar for fruits and vegetables is yet to see light of the day.
Since these projects were to be developed on public-private partnership (PPP) mode, there was statutory requirement of amendment to the Punjab Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act as the amendment in the Act would enable the private players to procure directly from farmers and encourage private participation.
Insiders are of the view that owing to strong commission agents pressure, the government could not amend the requisite amendments in the Act. Sources disclosed that since the required amendment was not done, so the government did not go ahead with the plan. They also alleged that the strong commission agents (arhitya) lobby does not want the act to be amended as the amendment in the act would have jeopardized their interest.
It is worth mentioning that former Punjab Finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal in his maiden budget speech announced setting up terminal market in 2007.
Earlier in 2007, the Punjab state agriculture marketing board was hopeful that the amendment would be done. In the meantime, they had also invited Expression of Interest (EoI) for establishing terminal market complexes at Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and Muktsar for fruits and vegetables in Punjab through PPP model.
In response to the advertisement, only four parties namely Premium Farm Fresh Foods Ltd (a subsidiary of Bharat Hotel), LT Overseas Ltd with brand ‘Dawaat’ basmati rice (corporate office in Delhi), Gurgaon-based Acme Telepower and Noida-based Caryaire equipments India Private Ltd had shown interest in setting up complexes at these places. But due to lukewarm response and since amendment was not done; the government put a hold on the project.
If it would have been materialised, it was expected that the proposal to set up the four state-of-the-art terminal market in Punjab would be a bonanza for the farmers. As the project would have integrated domestic production with food-processing industries, retail chains and emerging global markets, offering premium price to farmers based on quality in a competitive environment and transparent manner. The project also included infrastructure like collection centres, grading and packing halls, display areas, viewing gallery, auction hall, banking, processing, exports and other services. Besides, backward linkages of these markets with the farmers would be through collection centres, located in the producing areas, and forward linkages through wholesalers, retail supported by distribution centres, and cash & carry stores.
Further, the proposed investment in these four terminal markets would be likely to the tune of Rs 500 crore. Each terminal market would have a capacity to handle about 300,000 tonne of fruits and vegetables per year. The entire set-up would be on the hub and spoke model with 20-25 collection centres in each market and a catchment area of 20-30 km.