Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said, "India has the potential to become a global leader in the food processing sector."
"The food processing sector has got the ability to integrate the gap between the farmers and the consumer," she added.
She said that the food processing sector is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy and growing at the rate of 8.4 per cent.
Badal further said that this industry is one of the major employment-intensive segments, constituting 13.04 per cent of employment generated in all registered factory sectors in 2012-13, and added that there is an immense potential in the food processing sector to generate employment in the country.
The minister expressed her appreciation over the performance of the sector as reflected in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for factory output, which stands at 5.7 percent (April to February) 2014-15 as compared to (-) 2.1 percent (April to February) 2013-14.
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The increase is mainly driven by growth in rice (11.8 percent), edible hydrogenated oil (5.6 percent) and milk, skimmed and pasteurized (1.4 percent).
Badal informed that 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is permissible in food processing sector through the automatic route, except for items reserved for Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs).
During (April to January) 2014-15, this sector has attracted USD 421.51 million FDI in the country. Food processing is one of the priority sectors under the Prime Minister's 'Make in India' initiative.
During last six months, the average inflation rate for (October to March) for food articles and manufactured food items has shown a decline from 13 percent to 5.1 percent and from 1.8 percent to 1.5 percent.
She mentioned that arresting the high level of wastage of perishables was a challenge, but every effort was being made to reduce wastage of agricultural produce and ensuring higher returns for farmers.
With a view to promoting the food processing sector, she said that the government has been strengthening infrastructure by supporting creation of cold chains and mega food park under the central sector scheme of infrastructure development.
Recently, the ministry had sanctioned 17 new mega food parks to attract investment in the sector and will sanction approximately 30 more new cold chain projects.
