Shri Chirag Paswan, Hon’ble Minister of Food Processing Industries, Government of India, speaking at the Interactive session on Next Gen GST Reforms, on 11 September 2025, at New Delhi.
R-L: Mr S Sivakumar, Chairman, CII National Council on Agriculture and Group Head, Agri & IT Business, ITC Ltd; Shri Minhaj Alam, IAS, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India; Ms Seema Arora, Deputy Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry at the CII FPO Summit 2024 “Empowering FPOs towards Building Resilient Agri Value Chains” on 10 December 2024 in New Delhi.
(L_R) (2nd from left) Mr P Ravichandran, Chairman, CII National Committee on Cold Chain & President, Danfoss Industries P ltd; Dr Sreedhar Cherukuri, IAS, Commissioner of Industries, Commerce and Exports and Chief Executive Officer, AP Food Processing Society; Mr APM Mohammed Hanish, IAS, Principal Secretary (Industries & Commerce), Government of Kerala; Mr B Thiagarajan, Chairman – CII Foodpro Expo 2024 & Managing Director, Blue Star Limited; Mr P Rajeeve, Hon'ble Minister for Law, Industries and Coir, Government of Kerala; Dr R Nandini, Chairperson, CII Southern Region & Managing Director, Chandra Textiles Private Limited; Ms Apoorva, IAS, Principal Secretary & Agricultural Production Commissioner, Government of Tamil Nadu; Mr Srivats Ram, Chairman, CII Tamil Nadu & Managing Director, Wheels India Ltd at the Inaugural session of Foodpro 2024 on August 09, 2024, in Chennai
Meeting with Hon’ble Minister Shri Chirag Paswan, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India, 10th July, 2024, New Delhi.
Meeting with Hon’ble Minister of State, Shri Ravneet Singh Bittu, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India, 10th July, 2024, New Delhi.
Mr G Kamala Vardhana Rao-IAS, CEO FSSAI, addressing the participants at the 14th CII Award for Food Safety 2023 on 31st Jan 2024, in New Delhi.
Winner of Outstanding Performance in Food Safety Small & Medium Business, Catering Business category at 14th CII Award for Food Safety 2023- The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Vaikunta Hill, Bengaluru on 31 January 2024 in New Delhi.
Inauguration of the FoodPro North East 2023 at Guwahati on 14 September 2023.
Ms Jane Karkada, Senior Director, CII’s Food and Agriculture Center of Excellence; Dr S.B. Barbuddhe, Director ICAR-NRC Meats; Mr Siraj A. Chaudhry, Country Chairman, SATS India; Mr G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, Secretary, Government of India & Chief Executive Officer, Food Safety Standards Authority of India; Mr Avinash Kant, President, Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd; Mr Ayush Arora, Co-founder, Sattviko and Mr Ajay Khanna, Chief Marketing Officer, Amway India at inaugural session of 18th Food Safety, Quality and Regulatory Summit on 16 June 2023 in New Delhi.
H E Dr Md Abdur Razzaque, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh and Mr Pranay Verma, High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh at the Inaugural session of Indo Bangladesh Agri Mechanisation Summit on 27 January 2022 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Food Processing

Food processing industry is of enormous significance for India's development because of the vital linkages and synergies it promotes between the two pillars of our economy, industry and agriculture. Fast growth in the food processing sector and simultaneous improvement in the development of value chain are also of great importance to achieve favorable terms of trade for Indian agriculture both in the domestic and the international markets. The sector however has to go a long way. Even important is the crucial contribution that an efficient food processing industry could make in the nation's food security for instance the post-harvest losses of selected Fruits and Vegetables are about 25% to 30% in our country. Even marginal reductions in these losses are bound to give us better returns and thereby improve the income level of the farmers. During the last one decade, India moved from a position of scarcity to surplus in Food. Given the trade in production of food commodities, the Food Processing Industry in India is on an assured track of growth and profitability. It is expected to attract phenomenal investment in capital, human, technological and financial areas. The total food production of India is estimated to double in the next ten years. Hence there is an opportunity for large investments in food and food processing technologies, skills and equipment. The major interventions in this context are, for example, Canning, Dairy and Food Processing, Specialty Processing, Packaging, Frozen Food/Refrigeration and Thermo Processing. Fruits and Vegetables, Fisheries, Milk and Milk Products, Meat and Poultry, Packaged / Convenience Foods, Alcoholic Beverages and Soft Drinks and Grains. Health food and health food supplements are other rapidly rising segments of this industry. The Food Processing Industry sector in India has been accorded high priority by the Government of India, with a number of fiscal relief and incentives, to encourage commercialisation and value addition. With an overall objective of positioning India as the ‘Food Basket’ to the world and aligned with the CII National Agriculture Council, both the CII National Committee on Food Processing and the CII National Task Force on Cold Chain development have been working with the objective of promoting investments, Innovations and Best practices, for the Food processing industry, in line with the ‘Make in India’ initiative on the Government of India.Towards meeting these objectives, CII has been working in close partnership with the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, State Missions on Food Processing, Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Ministry of Agriculture, National Centre for Cold Chain Development (NCCD) and the National Horticulture Board (NHB). The CII National Committee on Food Processing has been focusing on : • Promoting exports of processed foods • Facilitating the Ease of doing business • Engagement on the Make in India initiative • Promoting Investments • Matchmaking of the Technology and the business needs of the industry • Streamlining the taxation related issues. Some of the key initiatives of the CII National Food Processing committee include: I. Catalyzing Investments: An important mandate of the Food Processing Committee is to catalyze investments in the creation of post-harvest, marketing and processing infrastructure across value chains II. Research and Capacity Building : Short Term Training Programs with the National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management, Feasibility Report on Post Harvest Value Chain Management and plan for future development of Cold Chain for Mangoes in Andhra Pradesh and a Report on establishing the importance of Food Processing III. Engagement at State level Food Processing Mission: Engagement with State Level Food Processing Missions, to facilitate state level investments and provide hand holding services to local entrepreneurs. An example of this is a recent Feasibility study on Food Processing Project under NMFP on Banana Processing Units in West Bengal. IV. Government Interface: Both the CII National Committee on Food Processing and the Task Force on Cold Chain Development interacted with the Hon’ble Minister and the Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries to highlight industry issues and concerns. In addition, constant interactions with the Government were held on issues like Pre Budget Memorandum, Impact of GST on Food processing Sector, Positioning of Food processing Industry and Viability of Cold Chain Models, among others. V. International Outreach: Engagements with Government and the Industry delegations from overseas. This past year has included delegations from Israel, United Kingdom, Lebanon, New Zealand, Sweden and Japan , with a view to learn the best practices, synergize efforts in technological advancements and identify areas/opportunities for bilateral cooperation. Similarly the CII National Task Force on Cold Chain development is working towards identifying and focusing on specific crops with regard to specific States and develops a model over it with regard to branding and marketing of the crop, both in the domestic and international markets. Food safety is becoming a growing global concern with regulatory regimes worldwide being faced with the challenge of curtailing food safety risks. The CII National Task Force on Food Regulatory Affairs works closely with industry and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Government of India in the area of Food Regulations. The Task Force facilitates resolution of regulatory issues confronting the food industry, such as the labelling requirements, licensing, product approval etc. for creating a conducive Regulatory Framework. Food processing industry is of enormous significance for India's development because of the vital linkages and synergies it promotes between the two pillars of our economy, industry and agriculture. Fast growth in the food processing sector and simultaneous improvement in the development of value chain are also of great importance to achieve favorable terms of trade for Indian agriculture both in the domestic and the international markets. The sector however has to go a long way. Even important is the crucial contribution that an efficient food processing industry could make in the nation's ...

Kavery Ganguly
Principal Lead - FACE
Confederation of Indian Industry
24-25, Institutional Area, Lodi Road
New Delhi-110003
Delhi
India
Phone : 91-11-40028800
Email :kavery.ganguly@cii.in

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