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Food processing industry to touch $ 600 bn in 2020: TN Governor
Aug 23, 2019

Tamil Nadu Governor Thiru Banwarilal Purohit here on Friday said that the country's aim to become a $ 5 trillion economy by 2025 needed an overall growth of 9 per cent or more and the food industry should commit itself to grow with speed and with scale for offering food safety and security to all of its citizens.

Inaugurating the 13th Edition of  Foodpro 2019 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said as of now the food processing industry contributed to around 9 per cent of the country's manufacturing output and the sector witnessed a growth of 11 per cent is expected to touch $600 billion milestones next year. Stating that the food processing sector offered employment to close to 12.8 per cent of the workforce in the organised sector and about 13.7 per cent of the workforce in the unorganised sector, the Governor said that there should be concerted efforts to share the growth story with the farmers of the country.

“India's dairy sector is a great example of the multiplier effect the food industry can have in reducing the financial stress and boost the complementary income of the farmers. Dairy as one-third of the food industry could generate around 6000 jobs for generating every one lakh litres of milk and the industry employs about 90 lakh people and it could scale up to 1.2 crores”, he noted. He also said the government had set a target to create direct and indirect employment for 5,30,500 persons in the food processing sector by 2020.

Thiru Banwarilal Purohit, further said that India could well become the food factory of the world what with a set target of Rs 100 lakh crore worth of investment coming in the next five years and to promote the food processing sector, 100 per cent FDI was allowed under the automatic route and the same percentage was also allowed through government approval route for retail  trading in respect of food products manufactured or produced in the country. The Centre provided financial assistance of up to Rs 50 crore per mega food project to address critical gaps in the value chain, including infrastructure, modernisation, productivity, post-harvest management and quality control, he remarked.

The Governor lauded the Tamil Nadu government for becoming one of the leading food exporters of varied food products like marine products, rice, cereal and dairy products. Also the efforts taken by the state to give more impetus to achieve its objectives of increasing the income of farmers and establishing cold storage facilities for perishable products.

Mr Rameswar Teli, Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, Government of India in his address said that the food processing ministry has launched several schemes for the benefit of the food processing sector.  In Tamil Nadu, three schemes have been completed out of 12, and there are efforts to create mega and mini food parks in the state with the allocation of 50 acres and 10 acres respectively”, he said.

Mr R Kamaraj, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Government of Tamil Nadu, said the state had set apart Rs 482 crore for the food processing sector in the form of various schemes to benefit the farming community. He also said that Tamil Nadu showed the way to others in terms of creating food security to the people through the public distribution system. “There are 1800 direct paddy procurement centres in the state that can benefit 5 lakh farmers who can produce 20 lakh metric tonnes of paddy and a sum of Rs 1450 crore has been earmarked for the godowns”, he added.

Dr K Ellangovan, Principal Secretary, Department of Industries and Commerce, Government of Kerala, said the state of Kerala had two food parks and five industrial parks with a great focus on developing the MSMEs by all reckoning.

Mr Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu, Chairman, CII Southern Region and CMD, Lakshmi Machine works in his address said that the food processing industry needs to focus on capacity building initiatives and skill development all across the value chain to gain competitive advantage globally. It would also strengthen the linkages across the agriculture and food processing industry with an objective of building a connected an integrated value chain that in turn can result in minimising spoilage, increase in value addition and contribute significantly towards enhancing the farmer income.

Mr Navas Meeran, Chairman, Foodpro 2019 and Chairman, Eastern Condiments, said that food processing industry needed to focus on value-added products for its sustenance with a focus on 10 cold storage facilities that had come for food processing.

The food processing industry need stronger infrastructural facilities, better quality control & testing facilities and a ecosystem to create robust supply chain and availability of  raw material, competitive inventory management, a conducive taxation regime, best in class packaging solutions and adherence to global safety practices will boost the food processing industry and the inputs sector to the next level of growth trajectory.

Mr P Ravichandran, Chairman, Agriculture and Food Processing Sub-Committee, CII-SR and President, Danfoss Industries, said that food processing industry stood at a size of $ 450 billion and it could move up to $ one trillion by 2022 as more and more start-ups had started emerging to help the farming community.

Dr C Anantharamakrishnan, Director, Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology, said that many local brands had surfaced in the food processing industry though people opted for traditional foods. 

Mr S Chandramohan, Chairman, CII Tamil Nadu & Group CEO and President, TAFE, proposed a vote of thanks.

23 August 2019

Chennai

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