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Agriculture Minister MK Anwar has stressed the need for improving post-harvest technologies and replicating those to the field level to increase export of agro- product.
He was inaugurating a day-long seminar on the 'Export of frozen vegetables: problem and prospect' at Hortex Foundation in the city Thursday.
Presided over by Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Kazi Abul Kashem, the function was also addressed by Adviser of the Ministry of Commerce Barkatullah Bulu. Producers, exporters, researchers and extension workers attended the seminar while Hortex Foundation Managing Director Akmal Hossain presented a paper in the seminar, reports BSS.
Anwar said agro-products sector is a very prospective sector and the government is providing 30 per cent cash incentives to agriculture exports. He said if the farmers found it more profitable to grow vegetables, they would become vegetable growers from being rice producers.
The minister urged the Hortex Foundation to extend the cool chain mechanism upto the field level to keep the vegetables fresh.
He said the unutilised space of the existing fish cold storages across the country could be used for frosting vegetables for export.
He urged the exporters to enter the super markets of the exporting countries in addition to ethnic markets.Barkatullah Bulu said agro-products is a prospective sector to diversify export markets and explore new markets.
He called upon all concerned to apply new technologies to develop production and marketing of agriculture commodities.
Akmal Hossain in his paper said vegetable exports have been increasing and reached 46 million US dollars in 2004-05. He said frozen vegetables have a good market in Europe and America in addition to fresh vegetables.
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