Daringbadi: Kandhamal Fresh- a vegetable mall, the first of its kind was, set up in tourist spot Daringbadi was inaugurated by Kandhamal District Collector Brundha D.
Built on modern design, the outlet was environmentally controlled retail mall. Moreover, the air conditioned mall, apart from helping farmers to sell their products directly at competitive prices, has the capacity to store around two tonnes of green vegetables with adequate racks and refrigerators.
Besides fresh vegetables produced in the area, other farm products such as spices, honey and brooms will be available at the outlet. It will be managed by KASAM, a farmer’s organization.
“The district produces around 3.25 lakh vegetables annually including beans, pea, potato, tomato, bitter gourd, brinjal, cauliflower, cabbage, radish, gourd, onion and ridge gourd. However, the farmers in Kandhamal are forced to sell their produce at lower prices to middlemen due to lack of marketing facilities, while the prices are normally high in other. We hope this initiative will curb the distress sales of vegetable products,” the Collector said.
“Besides preventing farmers from being exploited by middlemen, Kandhamal Fresh will give them a market which to steel their products at competitive prices,” she said.
“We have decided to pen three more such outlets as Baliguda, Phulbani and G. Udayagiri in the district soon,” Collector Brundha D added, after inaugurating the Fresh outlet at Daringbadi.
The three outlets at Baliguda, Phulbani and G. Udayagiri will be managed by Farmers Producers Companies. Each company has more than 200 members.
Each outlet has been built at a cost of Rs 15 lakh. Of this, Rs 7.50 lakh has been provided by the National Horticulture Mission. The remaining has been borne by the integrated Trbial Development Agencies.
It was learnt that the administration was planning to open Kandhamal Fresh outlets also in major cities of the state, including Bhubaneswar and Berhampur. As the Kandhamal produce is in high demand across the state, the officials expected a good profit for farmers who often fell in the hands of the middlemen.
PNN
