Guwahati: A shipment of 11 metric tonnes of pineapple with an end-to-end cold supply chain was dispatched to Delhi. The pineapples were obtained from the Boko Pineapple Farmer Producer Company (FPC) in Kamrup district and the Jinjiram Pineapple FPC in Goalpara district.
Pineapples from Assam and the North East of India are regarded as the sweetest in the world (farm gate TSS > 18 Brix); the golden pulp has a strong scent and a low fibre content. This miraculous fruit is mostly grown by indigenous farmers utilising organic or natural agricultural approaches. Farmers, on the other hand, suffer enormous difficulty in collecting the grain on the Himalayan terrains of the northeastern area.
And the lack of need-based strategic agro-logistics like farm gate handling units, reefer trucks, pre-cooling chambers, and cold chain logistics, makes it equally challenging for the farmers to transport the pineapples to organized markets, consumers, and processing houses located at distances outside the region.
These impediments have prevented people around the globe to savour the Assam pineapples. Taking a step towards pineapple market linkage operation, the Jitban Supply Chain Pvt. Ltd, in collaboration with the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART), Dept. of Horticulture Govt. of Assam, District Agriculture Offices, and the Anjaybee Green and Farmer Producing Companies (FPC) have come together with a streamlined motive for making this happen. The first step has been to send the produce harvested as per global protocols to Delhi, by road in 14 Mt Reefer Van.
It was flagged off by Dr. Ashish Kumar Bhutani, Additional Chief Secretary to the Govt. of Assam and State project Director of the ARIAS Society on July 21, from the Bipanan Khetra, Guwahati.
This market linkage initiative has been supported by the District Agricultural Offices of Kamrup and Goalpara.“This consignment aspires to make a follow-up shipment to Mumbai and then to Dubai (in Sea Container), thus providing market linkages to our Assam Pineapples both within India and abroad.
In days to come, the Assam government and APART envisage exploring more networking and market facilitation to the FPCs of Assam and assure to provide collaborative support, to corporate buyers for increased procurement of Agri-horti commodities from the state,” said Dr. Bhutani.
FIRST Business Portal addressing the potential of business capability of North East Region.
