Union Food Processing Industries Minister Subodh Kant Sahai today said the five new mega food parks proposed in the Union budget are likely to come up in the northern states.
"Our intention is to have at least one mega food park in each state. We have covered the southern states and now we will try to cover the northern states," Sahai told PTI here.
Mega food parks are aimed at facilitating the processing of perishable food items backed by efficient supply chains, collection centres, primary processing centres and cold chain infrastructure.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget speech had proposed to set up five new mega food parks, aimed at boosting the food processing sector.
Ten such parks are already in the process of being set up mostly in the southern states.
Sahai, however, declined to divulge the names of the states where these parks would come up, saying, "This has to be approved by the Cabinet".
With the setting up of mega food parks, the government aims to minimise wastage of fruits and vegetables, which is now pegged at a whopping Rs 50,000 crore a year.
The government extends financial assistance to the tune of Rs 50 crore for setting up a mega food park.
Processing of food and vegetables in India currently stands at just 2.2 per cent and the government aims to jack it up to around 20 per cent by 2015.