Business Standard

Ministry to seek nod for 20 mega food parks

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BS Reporter Chennai/ Bangalore

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries is planning to add 20 mega food parks to the existing list of 10 parks for an approximate investment of Rs 1,000 crore across the country.

“We are planning to add five more mega food parks during the present fiscal and will seek cabinet approval for another 20 parks in the near future,” Ajit Kumar, joint secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, said here.

Mega food parks, launched during the 11th Five Year Plan has an objective to provide adequate infrastructure for food processing along with the integration of value chain from the field to the market.

 

The government has already approved establishment of 10 mega food parks in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

“There should be one mega food park in each state to boost investment in the food processing sector,” he said. Food processing sector contributes around 16-17 per cent towards the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country.

“The food processing sector has witnessed a growth of 13-14 per cent in the past and is expected to grow over 20 per cent during present fiscal,” Kumar told Business Standard.

He, however, said tax structure should be simplified to facilitate expansion of the sector.

“Proposed goods and services tax (GST) is likely to solve the complexity in the tax structure for the sector and will be under a unified tax regime,” he added.

According to an Ernst & Young report, food processing industry in India will grow in the range of 30-40 per cent over the next 10 years and the total investment in the sector in the next three years will be around $23 billion.

“Though the focus towards the sector is relatively new, growth opportunities are huge. Presently, the sector has a manpower requirement of around 3.5 million which can absorb people from traditional agriculture,” Kumar said.

During the last budget, the Centre had given various incentives to food processing sector in the form of tax exemptions, subsidy to small and medium enterprises, and infrastructure development.

“Barring the recent budgetary provisions, the government is planning to create primary food processing centre in the block level to provide better price realisation to the farmers,” Kumar said.

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First Published: May 03 2010 | 12:57 AM IST

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