Punjab to set up meat processing plant

To ensure marketing support to the piggery farmers, the Punjab government will set up a state-of-the-art pig meat processing plant in the state.

This decision was taken by Chief Minister Parkash Badal while presiding over a meeting with the delegation of piggery farmers and senior officers of the Animal Husbandry Department to address related to the marketing of pigs' meat so as to enhance their profitability, an official spokesman said.

Badal directed Animal Husbandry department to find a suitable site in the state so that the proposal to set up a meat processing plant could be implemented in the right earnest.
 

He also asked the Animal Husbandry Department to take up the matter with UT Administration of Chandigarh to allow the processing of pig meat to pig farmers in Chandigarh till the new plant was established in the state.

Taking part in the deliberations, the delegation informed the Chief Minister that though the pig farming had picked up but still they were not getting the desired prices prevalent in Nagaland and thus deprived of profit.

The pig farmers told they could only be benefitted after the state's own meat processing plant becomes operational.

The Chief Minister asked the Powercom to ensure the strict implementation of power supply in all the pig farms.

He also directed the excise and taxation department not levy VAT on the pig feed as already decided by the state government.

The pig farmers thanked the Chief Minister with whose intervention the Union Railways Minister had considerably reduced the freight charges on each rack by Rs 90,000 for transporting pigs from Punjab to Dimapur (Nagaland).

With this decision, the pig farmers would have to now pay Rs 1.95 lakh instead of Rs. 2.85 lakh per rack, the spokesman said.

There are nearly 400 progressive piggery farmers in the state.