MADURAI: After burning its way into the culinary tales of the people in Tamil Nadu, the famed Samba chilli of Virudhunagar is on its way to Sri Lanka and also other parts of the State, thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of the farmers there and the assistance extended by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).
The first export consignment of value-added Samba chilli products from there was flagged off by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Virudhunagar. The consignment is being exported to Sri Lanka, and will also dispatched to Andhra Pradesh and Haryana. Equally importantly, the products made from the famous chilli will also be available on e-commerce platforms, ensuring a steady and healthy income for the farmers by expanding the scope and scale of their trading horizon.
Minister Sitharaman also inaugurated a SIDBI-supported Farmers Producer Organisation (FPO) for GI-tagged Samba chilli products. Addressing the gathering, the minister said the FPO, which produces GI-tagged Samba chillies and value-added chilli products, is a model for the country, as it goes beyond providing credit by extending comprehensive support to farmers, including value addition, marketing, and export facilitation.
The farmers use less pesticides in Samba chilli cultivation, making the produce highly suitable for export, Sitharaman noted. Earlier, while sharing the success story of the FPO in Virudhunagar at the 'YiFi' Entrepreneurship Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Madurai, the Union Minister said, "Virudhunagar district, which is an Aspirational District, haven't met the State's average performance level.
“At the national level, we identified 114 districts to start with. We call them not backward, but aspirational, so that all the government schemes converge there and lift them,” she said, adding that Virudhunagar had performed well after eight years of being an Aspirational District. “Amazing work has been done in terms of quality and branding, and the products have started being exported. In the process, farmers have revived traditional rice varieties that had disappeared from the market. The highly nutritious red rice varieties such as Mappillai Samba and Kavuni have been beautifully packaged.” She also praised SIDBI officials for helping farmers access export opportunities in addition to providing financial assistance.