G.K. Vasanth Kumar, consultant at Karnataka State Agricultural Produce Processing and Export Corporation, has stressed the need for improving the quality of jaggery by adopting modern technology to get an access to overseas markets.
Inaugurating a workshop on jaggery production here on Thursday, Mr. Kumar said, improved technology would certainly increase the productivity and improve the quality of jaggery. Cost of jaggery production was going up owing to usage of traditional machines and equipment and paucity of skilled labour. Therefore, though there was a huge demand for jaggery in countries such as Japan, Russia and Australia, the jaggery producers were failing to take advantage of market opportunities in other countries, he said.
Mr. Kumar appealed to jaggery producers to adopt modern technology at their production units ‘aalemanes’.
According to him, paying attention to maintenance of global standards and quality parameters in the production of jaggery could help farmers find a good market abroad.
Chandrashekar, Assistant Professor at Jaggery Park, Dharwad, spoke on various issues concerning jaggery production.
K. Rudresh, Deputy Director of Horticulture; D.R. Pushpa, Director of Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC); and jaggery producers were present.
