With approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in place, it is expected that work on setting up the Mega Food Park proposed by the Punjab government in Jalandhar, under a scheme of the ministry of food processing, will start very soon.
The scheme involves 50 per cent of the project cost as grant from the Centre. The park, to be set up by special purpose vehicles (SPVs), under the Companies Act, will have anchor investors from the private sector.
The food park scheme will be implemented by an SPV, ideally a private company, in which the stakeholders will be investors in the park, producers, agencies, retailers, service providers, etc.
Further, the Centre and the state government may join the SPVs as partners, in the public-private-partnership (PPP) model. The backward linkages in the park will come under an appropriate institutional arrangement.
Under the proposed arrangement, it is estimated that approximately 4,000-5,000 farmers will get directly involved in the supply chain. The producer company or a society will be a shareholder in the SPV, formed for promoting the food park.
The estimated cost of the food park is Rs 120 crore and will be developed under the PPP model. The economic committee set up by the Centre had given its nod for setting up the Mega Food Park in Jalandhar and the department were waiting for the operational guidlines from Centre’s cabinet.
Now with the approval in place, it is expected that the work on the project will be start soon.
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According to the scheme, the mega food part would have three-tier system in the supply chain (backward linkage). It includes producers group, comprising of 20-30 self help groups (each self help group 10-20 farmers).
Also, it will have collection centres, primary centres (products specific clusters) for each producer group with pre-cooling facilities. Depending upon the need, sorting, grading & packing facilities will be provided at these centres. Furthermore, these centres will have facilities for transfer of technology as as information kiosks, supply of inputs etc. About 20 such clusters will feed the Food Park (central processing facility).