Ministry of Food Processing Industry (MFPI) today said the food processing sector requires an investment of Rs 1 lakh crore over a period of five years during the 12th Five Year Plan.
"It is assessed that to set up food processing units in several sectors of the food processing industry, including technology, machinery, among others, an estimated investment of Rs 1 lakh crore is required," said MFPI Joint Secretary K Rajeswara Rao.
This investment would help in increasing the food processing capacity to 20 per cent from the present processing level of 10 per cent of agricultural produce in the country, Rao told reporters on the sidelines of a national workshop on Entrepreneur Development Programme (EDP) in Food Processing here.
"We expect to garner Rs 10,000 crore from public finance institutions and the remaining 90,000 crore is supposed to come from venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and through FDI for a five-year period during the 12th Five Year Plan," Rao said.
At present lack of processing is resulting in loss of agri and horticulture produce worth of Rs 55,000 crore every year, he said pointing out that 65-85 per cent of farm produce is processed at the international level.
