New Delhi, Sept 19: The Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan in presence of Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma today inaugurated the Meghalaya Pavilion at the ongoing three days SIAL India 2019 in New Delhi.
SIAL India is an offshoot of SIAL Paris, the world’s biggest food innovation and exhibition show. Meghalaya being the partnered State in the second edition of SIAL India has actively engaged to showcase the best of agriculture and horticulture products from the State.
Honey branded as “Bee Natural” from the COLK Pvt Ltd, Shillong owned by Vijay Byrsat won the Golden SIAL India Food Innovation Award that has put Meghalaya on the centre stage during the event in Delhi and has generated the much needed attention the State deserves in terms of its unique identity of its food product.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma spent the entire day at the Pavilion in Delhi and interacted with different stakeholders, entrepreneurs, buyers and media professionals to enlightened the visitors about the rich potential of Meghalaya and Northeast as a unique ‘food destination’.
He informed that the Northeast Food Show, which will be held in Shillong in December was conceptualised after a delegate led by him visited SIAL Paris last year. “We have lot of potential in terms of our food products and value chain. We are leveraging the rich resources and opening our market for the rest of the world,” the Chief Minister said.
Talking on the potential of the resources in Northeast, the Chief Minister said, “A business ecosystem is being developed in the State with a positive mind to promote entrepreneurship and link them through different programmes of the government to the market.”
During his engagement with different stakeholders, the Chief Minister opined that Northeast can become the hub of investment in the background that the region has a demographic advantage.
He enlightened that Northeast occupies 7.8 per cent of the country’s total land space but has a population of 3.8 cr, which makes it approximately 3.73 per cent of the country’s population, where lies an emerging market that would prove to be of interest to domestic and international investors.
A 30 member strong team of producers and entrepreneurs from Meghalaya are taking part in the SIAL India exhibition. The participants says that the buyers have shown keen interest in their products especially coffee, turmeric, tea, honey and jackfruit products.
