IFFCO’s organic joint venture with Sikkim government, SIFCO (Sikkim IFFCO Organics) has started its construction of integrated food processing units at Rangpo, Sikkim Monday. The construction is expected to be completed by October 2021 and it will start production afterwards. The two integrated food processing units are being laid with a total construction cost of around Rs 50 crore.
The foundation stone for these plants were laid last year by Chief Minister of Sikkim, Pawan Singh Tamang in the presence of Union Agriculture Minister, Narendra Singh Tomar. It will not only give a boost to organic farming in Sikkim but also to organic farmers elsewhere in the north eastern states. The COVID-19 pandemic had delayed the project by few months. SIFCO will soon start trading fresh ginger through its agencies in Germany, Italy and other European countries. The entire range of SIFCO products will be 100 percent organic certified and hence non-toxic in nature. This will promote sustainable agriculture and green Himalayan economy.
LB Dass, Speaker of Sikkim Legislative Assembly; Agriculture Minister, Sikkim, Lok Nath Sharma and Sh. Manish Gupta, Managing Director, Sikkim IFFCO Organics and other senior officials were present at the occasion along with the officials of IFFCO, state of Sikkim and Sikkim IFFCO Organics.
Sikkim is already recognised as a 100 percent organic state. The aim of the JV is to provide a safer food supply chain to the consumers in India and elsewhere in the world. The JV will be initially processing ginger, turmeric, large cardamom and buckwheat. These crops are the major produce of Sikkim with huge export potential. SIFCO will market these produce to different markets of country and world. In this regard two MoUs have already been signed; one with Blossoms Biodynamics, USA for utilising their marketing and distribution in the North American markets and other with Centar dr. Rudolfa Steinera, Croatia for marketing its products in Croatia and the European Union.
