Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday sought the cooperation of Netherlands government in the food processing sector and said the country’s innovative farming techniques can benefit Himachal in agriculture, horticulture and allied sectors.

Thakur and his delegation held discussions with Jan-Kees Goet, Secretary General at the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality at Amsterdam in the Netherlands as part of the state government’s plan to seek investments from abroad.

The CM apprised the Secretary General about the immense potential that Himachal Pradesh has been bestowed by nature in the fruit production.

“Himachal is known as ‘Fruit Bowl’ of India and the state produces varied types of fruits due to its different climatic conditions,” he said, adding there is a vast scope of investment in fruit and food processing.

Thakur said since Dutch has perfection on water management and good innovative practices in agriculture and horticulture by using less land, the techniques can be very beneficial for a state like Himachal.

He invited the Dutch Secretary General and his Ministry to Global Investors Meet being organised at Dharamshala in November 2019, shortly after World Food Expo from 3 to 4 November at Delhi.

Secretary-General at Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality Jan-Kees Goet said that the Netherlands has created the golden triangle of collaboration between three main stakeholders, viz. government, research centres and agricultural businesses.

He also accepted the CM’s invitation to attend the Global Investors Meet.

Later, the Chief Minister held discussions with King’s Commissioner of South Holland, Provinciehuis, Zuid Hollandlaan, The Hague/Jaap Smit on scope of cooperation in the fields of Agriculture and Horticulture etc.

Jaap Smit assured his cooperation with HP in organising its maiden Global Investors Meet at Dharamshala and to lead Dutch business and trade missions to this mega event.

The CM and other members of the delegation also visited the Greentech Exhibition in Amsterdam RAI. Greentech is globally the largest horticulture based exhibition and Chief Minister evinced keen interest in it.

Industries Minister Bikram Singh, Ambassador of India to Netherlands Venu Rajamony, Additional Chief Secretary cum Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Shrikant Baldi, Additional Chief Secretary Industries Manoj Kumar, Director Industries Hans Raj Sharma, Special Secretary Abid Husain Sadiq and other senior officers were present on the occasion.