PRESS RELEASE
FIL Industries today issued a statement with regard to the news being circulated by some media outlets and media persons on the testing of positive cases for Covid-19 in its industrial units in Kashmir. The Company said that it has multiple operating units across the UT and a fruit packer/grower from Budgam, who is not an employee of the Company and who was last at the Company’s Controlled Atmospheric facilities on April 29 tested positive on May 6.
Accordingly, as a precautionary measure, the Company suspended the operations at its Controlled Storage facility and informed the authorities for voluntary testing of its employees. The test results came positive for 4 employees while as the result for others were negative who have been put in mandatory quarantine.
All due measures for the further sanitisation of the Controlled Atmospheric facility have also been undertaken. The Company also clarified that the Controlled Atmospheric facility is a separate unit and does not share common locations with the agrochemical/fruit concentrate and other businesses of the Company.
The Company also added that all Covid preventive measures were taken at its controlled atmospheric facilities in line with the guidelines and that all 4 cases were completely asymptotic. The spokesperson for the Company added “as an essential service provider for the storage of apples for the farmers, and to assist the farmers at this critical juncture of apple marketing, the Company has invested fully in Covid-19 compliant measures including new usage of PPE kits, social distancing, masks etc before this incident and will continue to strengthen the same going forward.
The Controlled Atmospheric facility and cold store operations are permitted as essential services by the guidelines of Govt of India and the Govt of Jammu & Kashmir. The Company has been fully compliant with these guidelines and will adhere with the same going forward. We would like to ask the media to be responsible in its reporting at such a difficult time for the society at large and not publish unchecked news.
