Odisha striving to develop trade opportunities for its MSMEs through Trade Fairs

Odisha state government has recently been proactive in their attempt to develop trade opportunities for the businessmen through various means, including organizing trade fairs and participating in trade fairs.

Only recently, the government organized the 7-day long Odisha MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) international trade fair in the Capital. The objective was to inspire the youths to get encouraged towards entrepreneurship instead of running for jobs, informed Sashi Bhushan Behera, the State Finance Minister. He informed that more than 3,67,000 MSMEs have been set up in the State, incurring an investment of Rs. 17,863 crore. 14,61,000 men and women are employed for this initiative.

As many as 400 domestic MSMEs, 40 start-ups and 32 entrepreneurs from Iran, Bangladesh, South Korea and Cambodia came to participate in the fair.

Those present on the occasion included MSME Minister Mr. Prafulla Samal, Secretary of MSME, Govt of India, Mr. Arun Kumar Panda, MSME Additional Chief Secretary Mr. Laxmi Narayan Gupta and NSIC (National Small Industries Corporation) Secretary Mr. Sudhir Garg.

Mr. Laxmi Narayan Gupta was in Delhi NCR only a few days back, leading a contingent of 30 food-based MSME units from Odisha, as partner state in IndusFood-II, organized by Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) jointly with Department of Commerce (Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt of India).

IndusFood gave an opportunity to the Odisha delegation to indulge in Government-to-Government (G2G) meetings with four countries viz. UAE, Vietnam, Iraq and Bangladesh. During these G2Gs, the Odisha delegation showcased investment potential crops like rice, maize, fruits, vegetables, spices and marine foods.

The additional chief secretary held discussion with the Vietnamese Ambassador to India HE Pham Sanh Chau with regard to possibilities of Investment & Trade by Vietnam in Odisha in the food processing sectors as a whole and with specific reference to marine sector. The exhibitor entrepreneurs from Odisha also engaged in number of Business to Business (B2B) meetings with entrepreneurs coming from various parts of the world in the food processing sector.

Anmol Industries Limited, Prime Agro Food Processing Pvt. Ltd., Om Oil & Flour Mill (P) Ltd., KASAM, Gram Tarang Foods Pvt. Ltd., Kar & Brothers, Green Essence Extraction (P) Ltd., Jay Bharat Spices Pvt. Ltd., Taratarini Cashew Industries, Ram’s Assorted Cold Storage Limited, Krupalu Rice Industries (P) Ltd., Magma Foods (P) Ltd., are some of the major Odisha Companies which participated in IndusFood. The event saw about 800 leading buyers from 78 countries and 500 exhibitors from all across India with Odisha as the Partner State.