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Our Correspondent
Imphal, Aug. 21 (EMN): Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Prahlad Singh Patel on Saturday launched seven indigenous food products in Imphal.
The indigenous food products were black rice ladoo, black rice fruit and nut cookies, hot and spicy bhujia, kabok (puffed rice) mixture, Manipuri casava burfi, bamboo shoot muraba and fig ladoo.
The state Textiles, Commerce and Industries minister, Th Biswajit Singh, who is also chairman of the Manipur Food Industries Corporation Limited (MFICL) attended the launching function.
Speaking at the function, Prahlad Singh said, "Across the globe, we have high demands for Indian goods including those from the Northeastern states. However, our main concern is maintaining high quality of manufactured items, which is also the consumers’ expectation".
Emphasising on the importance of proper packaging and branding in marketing manufactured items, the MoS lauded the MFICL for the quality packaging of the newly launched food items.
Patel observed that Manipur has several rich items like black rice. However, branding of any item on a state-level requires a name or a symbol. He further highlighted the importance of maintaining quality and said that a strong message should be shared with clusters and individuals involved in running food processing enterprises against compromising with the quality of their products.
Food processing is a focus area of the prime minister, he said, adding that materials available in the Northeast are mostly from the hills and forest and products from these materials are in high demand inside and outside the country. However, these products still need certain requirements like inscription of scientific and detailed information on the products, branding and marketing and transportation, he added.
MFICL Managing Director, Peter Salam said that they have initiated a project "Incubation Lab" in collaboration with TQS Global, Ghaziabad with a mere budget provision of INR 10 lakh. The aim of the project is to assist any entrepreneur to transform their idea into reality and provide market linkage as part of Make in Manipur initiative to promote indigenous food products.
The function was also attended by MFICL vice chairman, K Saratkumar Singh, concerned officials and members of Leimalel Food, AMI Food Products and Vedam Agro Enterprises, who had developed the launched products.