Sindh government failed to establish agro-based industrial units of different vegetables, mangoes, guavas, red chilies, rice milling and dates in various districts of province under the "Modernisation/ Rehabilitation and establishment of industrial units in rural Sindh" project, Business Recorder learnt.
Sindh Board of Investment (SBOI), Planning and Development department and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) had initiated agro-based industries project in the last quarter of 2008. Processing units of various vegetables and fruits including mangoes, guavas, red chilies, rice milling and dates were the part of said project, sources said.
As part of this vision, a number of agro based cluster studies were commissioned to four private consultant firms in order to map these clusters, identify areas of improvement, propose agro-based industrial projects, share this vision with cluster stakeholders to promote public-private partnership and develop comprehensive plans to effectively establish and run these projects, sources said.
A private firm had submitted feasibility report regarding the tomato paste manufacturing unit, vegetable dehydration unit and canned vegetable unit to the Planning and Development department, sources added. Soon after this, Sindh government had started work to establish the said units in Matiyari district as per the demand of report. P&D department had suggested Industries and Agriculture department to make PC-1 of the tomato paste manufacturing unit, vegetable dehydration unit and canned vegetable unit, sources said.
But, the solid work has not been initiated in this regard, sources added. Feasibility report available with Business Recorder stated that vegetables processing units should be established on the commercial land close to main highway in Matiyari district because availability of raw material, land and labour, technical and operational resources and access to major markets and export hubs would be approached easily from Matiyari.
The fact of matter is that food processing is an emerging industry in the country, this industry accounts for 27 percent of the total value-added production and 16 percent of the total employment in the manufacturing sector. Growth of this industry may prove to be quite important for growth of Pakistan's agricultural as well as manufacturing sectors. This is mainly due to potential for export of processed food products, report mentioned.