ANANTAPUR: The first-of-its-kind Banana Integrated Pack house in AP was inaugurated on the Market Yard premises in Pulivendula by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday.
This would improve trading opportunities for the banana farmers in the region and help them fetch good prices. Bananas have good demand throughout the year, it was pointed out at the inauguration event.
The banana being produced largely from Kadapa and Anantapur areas has huge demand in other countries due to its rich quality, taste and variety.
The Chief Minister was on a one-day visit to Pulivendula Assembly segment. The facility was built at a cost of Rs 20.15 crore and is spread over 51,500 square feet. It has a capacity to procure 32 tonnes of banana and sweet orange fruits.
The plant would clean banana bunches in separate tubs of 32-tonnes capacity every day.
Further grading of sweet orange fruits would be done in the unit that has a cooling chamber of 45kw and a cold storage of 30.6kw as also six cooling cells. Farmers can store bananas and sweet oranges for 40 days till they get adequate prices in the markets. Official sources said a way bridge was also built with a capacity of 60 metric tonnes.
The Chief Minister, during a review with the officials, observed that the pack house would provide beneficial income to farmers even during the normal days of crop and can have better prices.
Kadapa MP Y.S. Avinash Reddy, collector V. Vijaya Ramaraju, PADA OSD Anil Kumar Reddy and several others were present.
