The Hindu : State food products to get `brand image'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 14, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

State food products to get `brand image'

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, FEB. 13. The State Government is planning to create a `brand image' for the food products being manufactured in the State, P.H. Kurian, secretary, Investment Promotion, and managing director, Kerala State Industries Development Corporation (KSIDC), has said.

Inaugurating `Safe Food,' a one-day quality management workshop for food processing sector organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries - Southern Region (CII-SR) in association with the Kerala Bureau of Industrial Promotion (K-BiP) here on Friday, Mr. Kurian said the Government had earmarked a sum of Rs. 99.99 lakhs for creating this `brand image' with the help of leading advertisement agencies. He expressed the hope that such a step would help in building brand equity for food processing sector in the State.

The Government was also planning to form clusters for the food industry in various segments, focussing on ethnic and traditional foods, Mr. Kurian said. The clusters would focus on the local, ethnic foods like Kozhikode halwa, Alathur chips and Pathanamthitta pickles, he said. The clustering is expected to foster quality and standardisation of products to tap the world market, he said.

A State Institute for Organic Farming at the Aralam Farm was also on the anvil, as part of the Government's move to promote organic farming as a continuum to the CII initiative in promoting organic agriculture, Mr. Kurian said. Two state-of-the-art food-testing laboratories would be set up at Mazhuvannur in Ernakulam district and Kakkanchery in Kozhikode district so that the quality and safety of the food products manufactured in the State could be increased, he said.

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