Newmai News Network
Shillong | September 19
Honey branded as “Bee Natural” from the COLK Pvt Ltd, Shillong owned by Vijay Byrsat won the Golden SIAL India Food Innovation Award during the three – day SIAL India 2019 event which was inaugurated by the Union Consumer Affairs Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan from the Meghalaya pavilion in New Delhi on September 19.
This accolade has put Meghalaya on the centre stage during the event in Delhi and generated the much needed attention the State deserves in terms of its unique identity of its food product. The Union Minister had inaugurated the event from the Meghalaya pavilion this year in recognition of the state’s participation as a ‘partner state’ and as such Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma deemed it necessary to be present in person at the event.
It may be noted here that SIAL India is an offshoot of SIAL Paris, the world’s biggest food innovation and exhibition show. Meghalaya being the partnered State in the second edition of SIAL India has actively engaged to showcase the best of agriculture and horticulture products from the State.
Sangma spent the entire day at the Pavilion in Delhi and interacted with different stakeholders, entrepreneurs, buyers and media professionals to enlightened the visitors about the rich potential of Meghalaya and Northeast as a unique ‘food destination.’
He informed that the Northeast Food Show, which will be held in Shillong in December was conceptualized after a delegation led by him visited SIAL Paris last year.
Speaking about the potential of the resources in Northeast, he added, “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 also said that Northeast occupies 7.8 per cent of the country’s total land space but has a population of 3.8 crore, which makes it approximately 3.73 per cent of the country’s population.
