CHITTOOR: Around 10 tomato pulp and four cashew industries in the district resumed operations on Monday. With the initiative of Collector Narayana Bharat Gupta, the tomato pulp industries started production with 30 per cent workforce. Each pulp unit has a crushing capacity of 150 tonnes per day. The 10 pulp units will crush 1,500 tonnes of tomatoes a day, which will give a big relief to farmers.
Normally, tomato farmers export their produce to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and also other parts of the State. With the enforcement of lockdown, truckers are not coming forward to transport their produce to markets. Farmers are forced to sell their produce to local traders at low prices.
Observing the pathetic situation of tomato farmers, the Collector along with Marketing department officials held a review meeting with management of pulp industries to run their units with 30 per cent workforce.
Meanwhile, four cashew industries in the district have also started functioning with a limited number of workers. A cashew industry near Chittoor town is running with 100 workers though it has permission to employ 300 workers.
The pulp and cashew units are providing face masks and sanitisers to workers. Murugesh, a farmer from V Kota mandal, said that it is better to shift the produce to tomato pulp industry during the lockdown period. “We have no transportation facility to export our produce and delay in transportation will affect the quality and price,” he said.