The Italian Trade Commission in Calcutta has identified tannery and leather goods, agricultural machinery, food processing and machinery for plastic and rubber as the thrust areas for business with Bengal.

“We have carried out an analysis of the core strengths of the region. These emerged as starting points for dialogue,” Vittorio Mecozzi, the trade promotion attache of the Italian consulate-general in Calcutta, tells Metro.

The city trade commission office, opened in December, has put in place a programme to add critical inputs to both the tannery and agriculture machinery sectors in the state.

It is setting up a Rs 5-crore centre in Bantala to train local technicians. “The centre will teach tannery workers how to work with modern equipment and also help them analyse materials,” explains Mecozzi.

To increase crop yield and introduce local farmers to modern machinery, the trade office has put in place a research and development unit on its Alipore premises.

In food processing, Italy hopes to continue with the flow of entrepreneur delegations to Italian trade fairs and organise seminars and match-making meetings in Calcutta.

The same policy will be followed in machinery for plastic and rubber, with the gaze again trained on small and medium enterprises.