India will become food factory of the world

With the food processing industry in India growing 13.7 percent annually, India is set to be become the food factory of the world, says Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahai. “While the manufacturing sector growth in the country has gone down from 7 percent to 6 percent, the food processing sector is growing a a robust 13.7 percent,” Sahai said at the foundation laying ceremony of the Patanjali Food and Herbal Park at village Padartha near here Wednesday afternoon, one of the 10 mega food parks that are being set up in the next two years in the country under the 11th Five-Year Plan.

The parks are being set up to boost the food processing sector through establishment of an integrated supply chain management to take food in various forms from the farm gate to the retail outlet and thereby reduce wastage of agricultural produce.

The minister said that though India depends on countries in the Gulf and the Middle East for oil, these countries look to India for food.

“India’s food processing industry has got the whole world market to exploit,” Sahai said.

“Even the great American entrepreneur Warren Buffet when asked on CNN television where he would like to invest next, said he would like to invest in India’s food processing sector,” he said.

He pointed out that whereas processing of food to consumable standards are at levels of up to 80 percent in some developed countries, the overall processing level of such produce in India ranges from 7 to 8 percent. This despite the fact that India is the world’s second largest producer of fruits and vegetables.

The mega food parks scheme is the flagship project of the ‘Vision 2015′ being undertaken by MOFPI which is aimed at, apart from raising India’s share in the world market, ensuring a three-fold growth in the size of India’s processed food sector, increasing the level of processing of perishables from six percent to 20 percent and raising value addition of such the products from 20 percent to 35 percent.

Lauding the efforts of yoga guru Swami Ramdev’s Patanjali Jog Peeth in setting up the food park, he said that the park would be used as a model for the other mega food parks coming up in the country. A total of 30 such mega food parks are being envisaged under the 11th Plan period.

On Monday, the foundation stone of one such food mega food park was laid in Ranchi and the minister will move to Assam Thursday to lay the foundation of another such park at Nalbari.

Other such parks are coming up at Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu, Chikmagalur in Karnataka, Shirwal in Maharashtra, Jangipur in West Bengal, Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh and Jalandhar in Punjab.

India: Food processing industry demands national reference data on nutrition parameters of agri, horti products

"It is essential to develop national reference data on nutrition parameters of all agricultural and horticultural produce. This data should be developed as per different varieties of crops and as per regional, soil and climatic variation. For example, different varieties of potatoes or dozens of varieties of mangoes, wheat from different regions of countries have different parameters and milk from different regions and animal breeds have different parameters," Dr S K Jindal, former president, All India Food Processors Association, told Food & Beverage News.

Dr Jindal also said that the nutritional parameters are also known to change with the level of maturity of the agricultural and horticultural produce. So according to the maturity stage of fruits and vegetables its nutrition levels will change.

According to industry sources, developed countries have done extensive work to prepare such database and have taken decades to adopt such reference data to come to reasonably good estimates of product nutrition.

"Without having requisite infrastructure and national reference data of nutrition parameters of agricultural and horticultural produce how could a responsible government imposed this kind of mandatory rules," Dr Jindal questioned.

"Moreover, most of the traditional and regional food products used multiple agricultural, horticultural and dairy inputs and it will not be possible for the small-sale industry to know the nutrition parameters for the different varieties of ingredients used in preparation of one item. It is also beyond their means to develop basic reference data on nutrition components," Dr Jindal added.

The small-scale industry (SSI) is now apprehensive that the number of cases will be increased immediately after the implementation of the said notification. More than one lakh cases under Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1955, have been pending in the various courts and tribunals in the country, it is learnt.

India: Move to give boost to food processing sector

The official launch ceremony was organized at a posh hotel here in the presence of industrial development commissioner Ashok Kumar Sinha, entrepreneurs and members of CII, Bihar Industries Association, Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services which has created the project for the food park.

The minister said the two schemes were envisioned by CM Nitish Kumar to ensure availability of food products of Bihar in every kitchen and on each dining table. The objective is to enrich Bihar's agro-economy by value additions through processing of vegetables, fruits and other agriculture produce, he said.

The state government's Vision 2015 envisages investment of Rs 1,670 crore in the sector, and this would generate further investment in food processing sector in the state making the total investment to about Rs 4,175 crore, the minister said. This would result in aggregate turnover in the state economy to the tune of Rs 8,350 crore, he claimed and added the income level of the farmers would increase by 30% by 2015.

The Integrated Development of Food Processing scheme provides for a grant of 40% of the project cost, subject to a maximum of Rs 10 crore, in case of common cluster infrastructure, and up to 35% grant of the project cost, subject to a maximum of Rs five crore, in case of an individual investor in food processing sector.

Under the scheme for Food Parks, the Special Purpose Vehicle would be registered as a corporate body with minimum 51% equity of private entrepreneurs while the rest of the equity may be with the state government agencies, banks and financial institutions.

This scheme provides grant up to 20% of the project cost, subject to a maximum of Rs 15 crore.