Amid pressure to roll back the Cabinet decision to partially lift prohibition, Chief Minister N Biren remains firm. Besides the sale and distribution of local brew and IMFL in selected spots, he is now talking about establishing a beer factory based on pineapple and ginger in the state. Manipur will soon have pineapple and ginger beer soon. In the Indian market, a 330 ml can of ginger beer is sold at Rs 350.
A one-liter bottle of pineapple and ginger beer can be sold above Rs 1000. This is a valuable addition to our abundantly available fruits. Farmers are facing problems while selling their products. During the season, a ginger farmer finds no buyers when the price of ginger is above Rs 30-40 per kg. Similarly, pineapples are readily available in the market at Rs 20-30 per kg.
Speaking at a function at City Convention Centre in Imphal on Friday, N Biren said the government is planning to establish a beer factory in the state using locally produced raw ingredients like pineapple and ginger.
As people from outside the state are becoming fond of our horticulture products, our local brews could be exported outside, he said, adding this would also encourage those people who had earlier carried poppy plantations to replace it with alternative crops like pineapple and ginger.
On lifting of prohibition, the Chief Minister stated that the Cabinet decision was taken after holding a thorough discussion and taking recommendations from committees formed earlier in this regard. Elaborating on the matter he stated that some communities have been producing local liquor as part of their custom and as such the Government hadn’t been able to ban such production.
He informed that a team from outside the State had been engaged to check the process of the production in such places and to bring it up to a certain level of standard so that the liquors could be exported outside the State.