The Centre has approved Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra)’s proposal to set up a mega food processing park at Palakkad as part of the 17 new projects in different parts of the country. Kinfra has selected IL&FS as the project management consultant for preparing the detailed project report.
The mega food park would be provided with basic infrastructure like roads, electricity and water. This apart, common facilities such as water treatment plant, effluent treatment plant, quality control laboratories, cold storages, warehouses, and process centres would be set up. The primary processing centres would also be equipped with weighing lines, packhouses, chill rooms/cold storages, etc.
The park will have facilities for food safety, which will benefit farmers, merchants and exporters. The estimated project cost is Rs 121.92 crore of which the state has sought Rs 50 crore from the Centre.
The Centre has announced 17 mega food parks in various states in the country. Under the Mega Food Park Scheme, each project is assisted with a grant-in-aid support to the extent of 50 per cent of eligible project cost, subject to a maximum amount of Rs. 50 crore.
The food processing ministry envisages setting up a three-tiered structure consisting of a centralised processing centre (CPC) with facilities for food processing activities involving higher-end value addition, primary processing centres (PPCs) with facilities for pre-processing activities or lower-end food processing and collection centres (CCs) for facilitating convenient collection of raw materials from farmers. The PPCs and CCs are located near to the farms and would be spread across the region from where the main raw materials for the park are targeted.
The raw material base for the Palakkad food park would include districts of Wayanad, Kannur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Thrissur and Ernakulum. The major raw materials identified for the park would include coconut, ginger, pepper, cardamom, turmeric among others.
