Industry body FICCI has suggested a five-point package to the government to grow the Indian food industry to Rs 13,20,000 crore by 2015 from Rs 8,80,000 crore in 2006-07.
The suggested measures include setting up an Inter-Ministerial Working Group (IMWG) under the leaderhsip of Ministry of Food Processing with FICCI as a knowledge partner, addressing agri business from the entire food chain perspective, restructuring the tax system to reduce the impact of multiple levies and reduction in final price of products, creating an enabling enviroment for modern food retailing, implementing the amended APMC Act and the FSSA Act in letter and spirit.
The major push, says FICCI, will come from retail industry that is likely to grow by 30 per cent in the next five years and become Rs 110 billion industry by 2010. According to FICCI, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, marine and fish, meat and poultry, edible oils, staples, alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages, breads and bakery, confectionary and packaged foods are the key industry segments which offer tremendous growth potential and investment opportunities.
Further, Indian wine is gaining a lot of recognition across the globe; the domestic wine market has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of more than 25 per cent and Ready-to-Eat (RTE) foods growing almost at 40 per cent per year.
