Shillong, Sept 19: Union Consumer Affairs Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan in the presence of Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma inaugurated the Meghalaya Pavilion at the ongoing three-day SIAL India 2019 programme in New Delhi on Thursday.

SIAL India is an offshoot of SIAL Paris, the world’s biggest food innovation and exhibition show. Meghalaya being the partner State in the second edition of SIAL India, has actively engaged to showcase the best of agriculture and horticulture products the State has to offer.
Honey branded as “Bee Natural” from the COLKS Pvt Ltd, Shillong owned by Vijay Byrsat won the ‘Golden SIAL India Food Innovation Award’, putting Meghalaya on the centre stage during the event in Delhi and has generated the much-needed attention the State deserves in terms of the unique identity of its food products.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma spent the entire day at the Pavilion in Delhi and interacted with different stakeholders, entrepreneurs, buyers and media professionals to enlighten the visitors about the rich potential of Meghalaya and North East as a unique ‘food destination’.

He informed that the North East Food Show, which will be held in Shillong in December, was conceptualized after a delegation led by him visited SIAL Paris last year.

“We have lot of potential in terms of our food products and value chain. We are leveraging the rich resources and opening our market for the rest of the world,” the Chief Minister said.

Talking on the potential of the resources in Northeast, the Chief Minister said, “A business ecosystem is being developed in the State with a positive mind to promote entrepreneurship and link them through different programmes of the government to the market.”

During his engagement with different stakeholders, the Chief Minister opined that Northeast can become the hub of investment in the background that the region has a demographic advantage.

He enlightened that Northeast occupies 7.8 per cent of the country’s total land space but has a population of 3.8 cr, which makes it approximately 3.73 per cent of the country’s population, where lies an emerging market that would prove to be of interest to domestic and international investors.

A 30 member strong team of producers, entrepreneurs and officials from Meghalaya are taking part in the SIAL India exhibition. The participants from the state on being asked about the response they are getting said that many buyers have shown keen interest in their products especially coffee, turmeric, tea, honey and jackfruit products.