Multan: First food processing plant in public sector established in city

[Naveed Yaseen]

LAHORE: Agro-Food Processing Facilities (AFP), the first ever fruits processing plant in public sector installed by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) as a common facility centre for SMEs with the government investment of Rs321.89 million, completed a successful test operation the other day in Multan.

According to SMEDA the project is a joint venture of the federal and provincial government, which provided land and building of worth Rs114.159 million through Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC).

Rest of the investment amounting to Rs207.73 million was arranged by the federal government through PSDP funding. The plant, having a capacity of processing 10 tons of Mangoes and 5 tons of guava, apple, strawberry and tomato in an hour, has created a great value addition facility for the small and medium growers of fruits and vegetables in the country.

Pakistan bristles with a total fruit production of about 6,011,228 tons and total vegetable production of about 5,719,527 tons. As per an estimate of Agriculture Department, 30 per cent production of the fruits and vegetables in the country is wasted due to lack of processing facilities, which may now be avoided through the AFP. The plant offers equal facilities for processing of vegetables to make products like tomato paste/puree and carrot pulp. Apart from processing, grading and packing facilities for fresh fruits and vegetables, a consultancy service has also been made available at the plant for growers to have information on the latest food processing techniques and technology.

SMEDA, being main executor of the project, arranged fruit processing machinery, office equipment along with human resources and the operational expense. Whereas, PSIC provided four acre land, complete building and a prefabricated cold storage for this project.

Despite having the total investment from the government sector, the AFP has been established through private-public partnership concept, and is further being managed by a private sector led by Board of Management (BoM).

Syed Zahid Hussain Gardezi, a prominent leader of fruits growers community in the northern Punjab is heading BoM. Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry as well as the Mango Growers Association, Multan have been the major partners of SMEDA and

PSIC. Both the organizations during the prime minister’s visit to Multan for inauguration of the AFP last week expressed deep gratitude to the government for meeting their long-standing demand of establishing a food processing plant there. They are confident the plant will bring prosperity to the small growers of fruits and vegetables in the region enabling them to enter into the export market with a number of value added agro-food products.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=197195