At the end of the four years at least 50% of the domestically processed tomato and mango products marketed and consumed in Bangladesh will be certified safe.
It will contribute to greater consumer confidence in domestically produced processed horticultural products, reduced food safety incidences and inclusive business development in the fruit and vegetable processing industry.
Current issues include tomato and mango contaminated with pesticides and examples of adulteration and adding harmful colouring ingredients or preservatives in the processing sector.
The SNV-led project will work with 5,000 mango and tomato farmers, hub-leaders of the processing industries and companies in tomato and mango processed food, i.e. mango juice, jam, jelly, pickle, tomato ketchup, sauce, puree.
It covers two districts and sixteen sub-districts in the Northern Part of Bangladesh and has a budget of almost €2m financed 90% by the EU.
A recent event at PRAN Agro Processing, one of the biggest processing companies in Bangladesh, identified issues such as lack of awareness and knowledge by small-hold farmers about good agricultural practices (GAP) and good handling practices (GHP), uncompetitive market price, lack of training facilities and good quality seeds and difficult access to finance and to loan facilities.
The project will carry out capacity building trainings on GAP for small holding growers/farmers, GHP for collectors, traders, logistics providers, hub-leaders and food processing companies as well as Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for food processing companies.