If everything goes according to the plan of the Punjab government, the state would have 10 pack houses at different locations for grading and packaging agricultural and horticultural products. Already, the state government has got nod from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) for setting up five pack houses and a grant of Rs 5.35 crore as the cost of the project. The approval for the remaining pack houses from the Ministry of Commerce is awaited.
The government has initiated the process for hiring the consultant for the project. Each pack house would be spread over 0.5 acre, having mechanical grading line, pre-cooling chamber, cold storage, a reefer van and a pick up van. Packhouses help increasing the shelf life of produce, resulting in providing better quality fruits and vegetables to consumers, higher realisation to growers, enhanced capacity of growers to market the produce in distant markets, enhanced export from the state and likely to give boost to set up similar facilities in the private sector.
Sources in Punjab Agri Export Corporation Ltd (Pagrtexo), which is engaged in the development of infrastructure and promotion of distant domestic and export marketing of fruits, vegetables and processed products said the state government had submitted its plans to set up 10 pack offices across the state. The five pack houses will come up at Mushkabad (Ludhiana), Saholi & Lalgarh (Patiala), Kangmai (Hoshiarpur) and Babri (Gurdaspur).
