Tripura emerging as Pineapple export hub of India

Tripura is fast emerging as export hub for pineapples from India.
The border state exported more than 9000 tonnes of the best quality of delicious pineapples to Dubai, Qatar, Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries amounting to Rs 14 crore in the last two years.
Besides Pineapple, state also exported various other fruits and horticultural products to the UK, Germany and many other countries.
To popularize the marketing of the pineapples produced in Tripura, the fruit was commercially branded with a logo.
Tripura grows an estimated 1.28 lakh MT pineapples every year, across 8,800-hectare orchards in different districts.
Some of these orchards are run by the government, but most are privately owned. Over 4,000 people are directly connected to the cultivation of the fruit here.
State Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Pranajit Singha Roy said that the Kisan Rail and Kisan Udaan schemes, introduced by the Central government, are immensely benefiting the producers and farmers, especially of the northeastern region, by connecting them to the national as well as international markets.
To intensify pineapple cultivation in the state, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) centre in Tripura has designed a high-density, weed-resistant, climate-resilient pineapple cultivation technology.
Tripura’s ‘queen’ or queen pineapple, was declared ‘state fruit’ by President Ramnath Kovind in 2018.
However, the traditional cultivation practice has to deal with a lot of weeds and wild vegetation, leading to moisture wastage, low growth and a host of other problems.
Besides pineapples, Tripura also exported a large quantities of jackfruit, tamarind, stone apple, betel leaf, ginger to the UK, Germany, Dubai, Bangladesh and other countries as well as various Indian states.

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