The National Post Harvest Centre at Goling, Zhemgang is fully equipped, but the production has been hampered due to acute shortage of raw materials. The Centre, an integrated food processing plant, was started in 2008. It is commonly used by the farmers from the central region of the country.
It was constructed and is still being taken care of by the Ministry of Agriculture. The ministry provides the plant with all necessary items like machinery and chemicals for processing food. Currently, the plant is being run by the Rigsum Gongphel Sonam Tshogpa.
The Chairperson, Leki Dorji, said although the agriculture ministry is providing everything for the plant, they are faced with shortage of raw materials which hampers their production.
“When we buy raw materials from farmers we need the capital. Without some sort of capital our Tshokga can’t buy raw materials. The farmers aren’t willing to sell to us. Even buying potatoes and oranges is difficult without a budget,” said the Chairperson.
Other members of the Tshogpa also shared about their concerns. “The processing plant doesn’t have much money. That’s whether we are running on profit or loss is very hard to say. I’d say there is neither profit nor loss. This is because we don’t have a budget to buy raw materials,” explained Nyenda Jamtsho, the accountant of the Tshogpa.
Most of the members said the Tshogpa is in a dire need of a loan from the government. Meanwhile, the processing unit normally produces all kinds of processed foods like pickles, jams, chips, dried vegetables, and also candies.
The processing unit also has a post production officer who guides the people visiting the unit. Just a week before BBS visited the plant, the farmers had produced 1500 kilogrammes of bamboo shoot pickle with Dallay Chilli.
“They make potato chips, banana chips, wafers, pickles like ginger pickles, like ginger candies, and also processing of orange pulp. They buy rejected export quality oranges and they process the pulp here and sell it to the Bhutan Agro or other agencies,” said the Post Production Officer, Sonam Tobgay.
As of now, the plant supplies its goods to the Bhutan Agro Industry. If the budget for raw materials are provided, the Tshogpa said, they plan to come out with their own products, with their own brand name.
