• Tuesday, March 19, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Chellarams Group tasks FG on robust agric policy

agric

Shriram Bisen, the Manufacturing Head, Chellarams Group, on Tuesday advised the Federal Government to formulate a robust agricultural policy to boost local production.

Bisen told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the 1st Nigeria Food Safety and Investment Forum in Lagos on Wednesday.

The forum, organised by the European Union, UNIDO in partnership with the Nigerian government had “Examining the Interconnection of Food Safety, Public Health, Investment and Food Trade’’ as its theme.

According to him, the government needs to develop strong institutions with strong bias for animal husbandry to assist in the production of quality animals for the local industries.

The industrialist said that the Chellarams Group had been in existence for 93 years and had been working hard to develop local content in Nigeria.

Related News

He said that the group’s dream of developing and sourcing 45 per cent of its raw materials locally was dashed when the government lifted the ban on the importation of dairy products towards the end of 2014.

He said that the present economic challenge experience in the country and the challenges in accessing foreign exchange dealt another blow on the company with about 200 staff losing their jobs.

“With the Forex challenge, 60 per cent of our production stopped. Two manufacturing facilities were closed down and over 200 employees lost their jobs,’’ Bisen said.

He said that the agricultural sector needed to be properly developed to boost the food industry since the food and beverage depends on the byproduct from agriculture