Union Minister of state for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution C R Choudhary stressed the need for setting up of cold storage chains in the country, which will help the farmers to get good price for their produce.
Inaugurating the Multi storied storage-cum Regional Office of the Central Ware house Corporation in Kochi, he said ‘’We are planning to open more cold storages for the farmers and we are working for that.’’
Underlining the need for setting up of cold storage chains in the country, the Minister pointed out that only 10 per cent of the vegetables and the fruits were being processed, as we did not have the required facility in this regard. For processing food and fruits, we required cold storages, particularly for onion, potatoes and tomato.
During the time of increase in production, the price of the products would come down drastically as they could have the facility to store it, which would ultimately led the farmers do not get good price, he said adding that if the cold storage facilities were increased, the farmers could store it there and sell when there is demands, which would help them to get handsome price for their produce.
Stating that India was one of the largest country in fish exports, Choudhary also said the need for setting of cold storage near ports, which help it well the fishing sector to keep their catch without decaying long time, and then to get more price as well.
‘’We have constituted a high level committee, with former Union Minister Santha Kumar as its Chairman, on how much storing capacity we have required and how can we achieve this,’’ he added.
He also suggested the CWC and the Food Corporation India to procure maximum vegetables and fruits, which would help to avoid waste of these products.
Stating that Computerisation of all the CWC and FCI ware houses and also end to end computerisation was the need of the hour, he said the process would help to check corruption and also the movement and despatch of foods to the respective states in transparent way.