Koheda fruit market to go international

Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Friday asked officials to look into facilities and best practices in the international markets in France and Spain to take a final decision in developing the Koheda market. He reviewed the master plan for developing the Koheda market with international standards.

Reddy asked officials to catch up with the technologies to increase the shelf life of fruits by reducing temperature in auction sheds. In all, it was decided to develop 11 large sheds in the market to conduct auctions. The minister said 820 shops would be constructed for fruits, dry chilly and onions to be allocated to commission agents and traders. Twenty acres have been allocated for cold storage and 78.78 acres for the fruit market.

For exports, special facilities wouldl be created on 19.75 acres, for dry chilly market 27.35 acres and 73.24 acres of other facilities. It was decided at the meeting to shift the chilly market from Malakpet to Koheda. And to create necessary facilities for the same. Also, to give further fillip to marketing of mangoes, it was decided to establish an irradiation and vapour heat treatment plant to facilitate mango exports. It was also decided to construct certification labs and offices needed for exports. The review meeting resolved to take directions from Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao before sending the plans for approval of DTCP.