PESHAWAR: KP Food Safety and Halal Food Authority have licensed the operation of Fruit Dehydration Unit of Small & Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) at Swat. In this connection, the Director General (DG), KP-FS&HFA, Shah Rukh Ali Khan also visited the plant of the FDU, Swat along with his team.

He appreciated the initiative of the SMEDA (MoIP) and stated that to reduce the fruits/vegetable wastage, such projects of value addition are very essential and the need of the farmers. He added that the KPFSA will continue to bring upon improvement in the food safety.

Talking to this scribe, Hafeezullah Khan (Project Director, FDU (Swat) has expressed gratitude to the KPFSA, PCISR, and Tarnab Farm for their support. He said that the timely support and quick response of the leadership of KPFSA, and PCSIR Peshawar enabled the project FDU to get the license in time. He informed that, the FDU, Swat has dehydrated about 22 tons of fruits and vegetable till date and that we are now fully ready for the persimmon season.

The project is capable of dehydrating major fruits like, apricot, banana, cherry, mango, melon, peach, pear, and persimmon. Trials on vegetables have also been encouraging with excellent results for cauliflower, onion, and tomato. The FDU project having its own building, machinery and website is also under process of ISO-22000 certification.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Saaj Khattak Venture (SKV), Javed Khattak, who was present at FDU, said that they have been able to start the dehydrated products business with the help of FDU-SMEDA, KPFSA, and PCSIR. Javed said that the cooperative and helping nature of these institutions has been of great motivation for us.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021