GUWAHATI: India’s largest pork processing plant will be built at Nazira in Sivasagar district of Assam, aiming to produce organic meat, Assam Agriculture Minister Atul Bora informed G Plus.
The Minister said, “India’s largest pork processing plant is being built at Nazira in Sivasagar district. The plant will aim to produce organic meat and is likely to transform Northeast into a processing hub”.
Bora, while inaugurating a conference focusing on the export potential of natural, organic and Geographical Indications (GI) certified agro-products on June 24 said, “There is a huge unattended demand for organic pork from Myanmar, Bhutan and other Southeast Asian nations such as Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong”.
The project has garnered support under the GOI Act East Policy, which has recognised the potential of North-East India to become a pork export hub, taking into regard the perfect natural conditions to herd pigs and also the logistical probability of easy transport.
The new plant is being built in Nazira for an estimated Rs 11.4 crore under the government’s Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES), Minister Atul Bora said.
At present, the North-East has a functional processing capacity of fewer than 400 pigs a day and the pig farms are scattered across several pockets in Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram without any organisation or structure in place to aid these local businesses. Most of these facilities are still using manual and semi-automatic machinery, and also do not conform to other export requirements including certain hygiene parameters.
Though India exported pork worth $1.67 million last fiscal year, Assam’s contribution has been negligible. Despite rearing 2.1 lakh of the country’s 9.06 million pigs, the need for pork is high in the State itself. Since many people eat pork as a staple in Assam.
The Minister also claimed that there is a silent green revolution going on in the State when asked about the number of people the venture shall employ. “Assam along with other northeastern states has huge untapped natural resources and suitable agro-climatic conditions to produce a diverse range of crops including ginger, turmeric, black pepper, etc. Sikkim has a maximum area utilised under organic cultivation followed by Meghalaya and Assam, we can help people exploit these conditions and aid economical development in rural areas,” he added.
The Assam Government has been focusing on Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), which is a type of chemical-free farming where the total cost of growing and harvesting plants comes out to be zero. For the export of agricultural produce, the State Government is planning to form 125 Farmers Production Organisations (FPO) and already 40 are functional on the ground.
