MillenniumPost
Bengal

Agriculture Marketing dept bats for better packaging of Sufal Bangla products

Kolkata: The state Agricultural Marketing department has roped in Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP) for packaging of the products that are available in the Sufal Bangla outlets across the state. The move will enable the department to increase the shelf life of the Sufal Bangla products and at the same time, enhance the quality of packaging.

"The Sufal Bangla products are witnessing huge demand among the consumers. But under our normal packaging, the shelf life of the products is very little. So, we have decided to go for scientific packaging. The IIP has already provided us with the technical know-how. We are soon floating a tender for packaging as recommended by IIP," said a senior official of the state Agricultural Marketing department.

"We have offered a number of packaging solutions which will be creating a better branding of the Sufal Bangla products," said Bidhan Das, deputy director of IIP Kolkata.

IIP Kolkata has done the packaging for date palm jaggery (nolen gur) on behalf of West Bengal Khadi & Village Industries Board, where the shelf life of the product is 180 days.

It may be mentioned that Sufal Bangla project was launched in September 2014 to ensure that common people get fresh vegetables at the right price. Later, some fresh fruits were also introduced.

At present there are 78 products available at Sufal Bangla outlets across the state. The number of mobile Sufal Bangla stalls are over 50, while that of static outlets will be 150 by the end of March 2019.

Apart from selling vegetables and fruits, the Sufal Bangla stalls also sell a wide variety of aromatic rice, mustard oil, processed fruit, milk and milk products from the state Animal Husbandry Department and meat products and eggs from the West Bengal Livestock Development Corporation.

The outlets are mainly run by different Farmers' Producers Organisations (FPOs), which collect vegetables directly from farmers and sell it in the stalls. It benefits both farmers and common people with the former getting the right price of their produce with no involvement of middlemen and the latter getting fresh vegetables at the right price.

The department has also introduced an app-based system for home delivery and the price list of all sorts of vegetables including organic ones has been made available on the Sufal Bangla website.

Next Story
Share it