By IANS
Chennai : The Indian food processing industry is logging an impressive growth rate of 18 percent, up from eight percent in 2004. The government would pitch in to facilitate the sector’s growth, said a top government official Monday.
“Necessary measures are being taken to assist the sector’s growth,” said P.I. Suvrathan, secretary, ministry of food processing industries.
The measures would include setting up of mega food parks with adequate backward and forward linkages for entrepreneurs, he added.
Suvrathan was inaugurating a two-day conference on “Driving the next agri revolution”, part of the seventh Foodpro, a food processing and food technology event held by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.
According to him, the government is trying to organise farmers to set up packing and storage centres so that they do not resort to distress sales.
He said the centre is in the process of setting up 50 modern abattoirs to be managed by the private sector. The companies to run the abattoirs will be selected on a competitive bidding process.
Suvrathan said that to address of the shortage of trained manpower, the government is setting up a National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management in 100 acres near Delhi.
The University of Cornell will design the course curriculum for the proposed Rs.2.45 billion food institute. The academic session is expected to start from 2009.
M.F. Farooqui, secretary, industries department, Tamil Nadu government, asked industries to go directly to farmers and tell them their needs and also pay remunerative prices for the produce.
He said the next agricultural revolution would be driven by the food processing sector.
Sumant Sinha, CEO, Aditya Birla Retail Ltd, pointed out the food processing industry employs around 15 million people with a turnover of $70 billion a year.
“By 2010 the industry is expected to be worth $150 billion,” he added.
Gopal Srinivasan, chairman, CII, Tamil Nadu and P.K. Mohapatra, chairman, CII, southern region, also addressed the gathering.