Forum to introduce innovative and creative value-added products inaugurated

Minister P. Moorthy inaugurated 'Arimugam', a forum to introduce innovative and creative value-added products, at the Vibrant Tamil Nadu Exhibition. 'Arimugam' provides a platform for people to market their products, create awareness on millets and organic farming, and hold meetings every 3 months to display products and explain their benefits.

Minister for Commercial Taxes and Registration P. Moorthy on Saturday inaugurated ‘Arimugam’, a forum to introduce innovative and creative value-added products, at the Vibrant Tamil Nadu Exhibition being held at the Agro Food Trade Centre at Sikkandar Chavadi in Madurai.

Over 150 stalls have been installed at the third edition of the Vibrant Tamil Nadu Exhibition, an International exhibition with a focus on millets, in view of 2023 being observed as the International Year of Millets.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Moorthy said that food habits in recent times had led to many health issues and diseases. People had realised this and had started to include millets in the diet which have many health benefits.

He said that the production of millets had also gone up. However, people were not able to market their products properly. They were not aware of the platforms. He said that ‘Arimugam’ would provide the right platform for the people. He said that more awareness should be created on the importance of millets and organic farming. He also spoke on the importance of technology in agriculture.

Explaining the concept of ‘Arimugam’, the President of Agro Food Chamber of Commerce and Industry S. Rethinavelu said that many start-ups and MSMEs and even young farmers were producing innovative and creative value-added products, but they had no opportunity to market them and they did not know how to market them. It had to be distributed properly.

‘Arimugam’ acts as the platform to market such value-added products. The farmers, start-ups and MSMEs will have the contact of traders. In order to encourage the farmers to continue manufacturing and producing innovative and creative products, a meeting has been planned to be held every three months. The products would be on display and their salient features and health benefits would be explained, he said.