By IANS,
Shimla : The Himachal Pradesh government Tuesday announced it would set up a fruit packaging plant in the state to boost its fruit sales abroad.
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, while interacting with Paul Vaughan, trade commissioner of the New Zealand high commission here, said the state would follow the packaging practices of New Zealand growers.
“We would examine the possibilities of adopting apple and fruit packaging system available with the New Zealand growers in this hill state,” Dhumal said.
According to him, the apple produce was currently being marketed in a number of foreign countries after getting the crop graded. With the packaging plant coming up, the produce could be marketed directly anywhere in the world.
Dhumal added that the state government would explore the possibility of entering into joint ventures with private players for setting up the plant.
Vaughan said New Zealand was keen to develop trade relationship with Himachal Pradesh.
He said the plant would be capable to process 1.5 tons of apple per hour and carry colour sorting, density grading, blemish sorting, single, dual and multi-lane sorting and packing.