FAISALABAD: President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) Farooq Yousaf Sheikh said that fundamentally Faisalabad is an agrarian economy and we must excel in value addition of raw material produced in vast tracts of its farm land which is imperative to promote exports of high value, packed and innovative food products.
Talking to a group of progressive farmers, he said that agriculture is 24 per cent of our total economy which is not only providing raw material to the textile and sugar industry but also directly providing jobs to the 42pc of our workforce.
He expressed satisfaction over the successive bumper crop of potato and said that our farmers should avoid selling their produce at throwaway prices but try to add value through non-traditional strategies.
He said that vegetables, potatoes and other perishable products must be preserved and exported to earn precious foreign exchange in order to root out rural poverty.
He said that potato production has been on a growth trajectory for the last many years but instead of converting it into the high value products, our farmers are complaining of low market prices.
He said that farmers could set up their own small units to convert it into potato flour which has not only a longer shelf-life but could also help farmers to sell this potato flour at appropriate time and at a reasonably high price.
He further said that the Punjab Government has already announced interest free loans for the SME sector which could help farmers to set up their own chain from production up to its export.
He said that this humble start will not only provide farmers a massive domestic market of 240 million but also open new avenues of introducing high value products for exports.
He said that it is the only solution to weed out rural poverty and make Pakistan economically a strong economy.
He further said that FCCI was ready to help the farmers to play their pivotal role in the uplift of the rural economy by holding awareness programs in addition to helping them to get interest free loans from the banks.
