LAHORE: Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) has planned to set up fruits, vegetables and condiments processing and mango pulping centres in Sindh districts of Naushehro Feroz and Mirpur Khas with a total cost of Rs. 535.106 million and Rs. 575.4 million respectively.
SMEDA Chief Executive Officer Sher Ayub here Wednesday advised the Provincial office of SMEDA-Sindh to start implementation on these projects within current financial year.
The SMEDA chief elaborated that main objectives of the schemes were to provide common facility services in ripening, sterilization, pulping, sorting, grading and packaging of fruit and vegetables. The state-of-the-art agro processing machinery, costing around Rs. 623 million, would be installed for the two model facilitates, which would enable local stakeholders increase their profitability in domestic markets and gain access to international markets for value-added horticulture produce.
Meanwhile, Provincial Chief SMEDA-Sindh Mukesh Kumar has reported to the CEO SMEDA that Bahria Foundation and SMEDA were working together for creating better infrastructure facilities to promote horticulture sector in Sindh.
He mentioned that Bahria Foundation Deputy Managing Director Syed Imdad Imam Jafri, in a recent meeting held at SMEDA-Sindh office, also acknowledged the cooperation of SMEDA in establishment of a modern Cold Storage (CA) facility by the Foundation in Karachi with a cost of around Rs. 350 million.
He said that Bahria Foundation had expressed keen interest in establishing infrastructure projects in the logistics, power, auto-assembling and tourism sectors. The SMEDA would assist Bahria Foundation in project viability assessment and establishment of projects for electric motorcycle assembly, wind power, cement and tourism services in Tharparkar, the Provincial Chief SMEDA-Sindh added.
