Tripura’s Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ratan Lal Nath, celebrated a milestone in the state’s agricultural development by marking a batch of 600kg queens’ pineapples destined for Oman at the Agartala railway station on Thursday. To reach Oman it will pass through Guwahati and fly from there.
Minister Nath highlighted the growing demand for Tripura’s agriculture “We are going to ship over 600 kg of Queen pineapples through Guwahati Express. It will ultimately fly to Oman from Assam.” He also informed about orders of another 5 tonnes of Queen variety pineapples destined to be sent to Dubai. Lastly, talks are ongoing to export 30 tons of Kew variety pineapple varieties to Netherlands now.
The demand for Tripura’s agricultural products is not limited only to pineapples. After his recent visit to Germany where he saw that German people were interested in Tripura diverse agricultural products, Minister Nath said “We got huge demands for black rice, bird eye chillis, The orders of kasa & black sesame after discussion with buyers there”. This shows the global surge in interest for unique farming products produced by Tripura State as seen in increasing orders made for such cereals.
- Prices soar: In Tripura, the price for queen pineapple has risen up-to Rs32 per piece from Rs2 per piece in year 2018 indicating rising demand and value locally and internationally.
- Export Milestones: The country intends exporting at least fifty thousand kilograms worth of queen pineapple or other fruits abroad by year 2024 thus highlighting a significant increase in state’s export potentiality. As part of its strategies towards expanding exports, this shipment marks one out of six hundred kilogrammes’ Queen Pineapple which has been exported now to Oman.
- Agriculture Transformation: Since 2018 the agriculture sector witnessed another major transformation especially considering that production soared from 1.27 lakh tonnes in 2017-18 to 1.72 lakh tonnes in 2022-23. This growth is attributed to the country’s efforts to strengthen marketing facilities and promote quality production.
- Export diversification: Tripura also exports other agricultural products such as jackfruit, ginger, wood apple and betel leaves which are non-pineapple products. Government Measures: NERAMAC( North East Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation) has been instrumental towards this initiative. It is important that NERAMAC would be hosting a horticulture promotion fair in Indore on June 22 specifically targeting at the international buyers for Tripura’s agricultural products.
- Geographical Indication (GI) Tag: GI tags sought by Tripura for its unique produce like Queen Pineapple, Rignai & Risha (Garment of aboriginal women), Matabari Peda (a sweet dairy product) forms part of this effort aimed at increasing the visibility and authenticity of Agri-businesses from the state in global market.
- Economic impact: Farmers now earn Rs 32 per kilogram of pineapples, compared with Rs 2 per pineapple that used to be during previous government’s time in power in year 2018. Wait a minute.
