India to soon emerge as BPO hub for global food chains: Sahai

New Delhi, Mar 8 (UNI) Enthused with the food processing sector being declared a priority sector for bank credits in the Budget 2006-07, the Government today hoped that the sector will emerge as the business process outsourcing (BPO) hub for the international markets besides serving the domestic needs in a big way.

Food Processing Industries Minister Subodh Kant Sahai said with creation of a Rs 1000-crore corpus for funding this sector through NABARD, it will witness a quantum jump in processing of agri products from the present 6 per cent to 20 per cent consequently raising its world market share from 1 per cent to 3 per cent within a decade.

At an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mr Sahai reiterated that the much-awaited Integrated Food Law (IFL) Bill will be passed in the current session of Parliament giving a much-needed boost to investment in this segment.

He also said that sensing potential in the food processing sector, big players like Reliance, Bharti, Adani and others have also decided to enter this field in a big way to become exporters of branded, quality and specific food products to meet the demand of international retail chains like Walmart.

Mr Sahai said NABARD has been asked to help the sector which mainly comprised small and medium enterprises in food processing by extending loans to them and help restructure their finances.

He also mentioned the efforts by the Human Resource Development Ministry in setting up of the National Institute of Food Technology Enterpreneurship and Management would help in developing skills and capabilities among the educated youth to set up and manage enterprises in the food processing sector.

The Minister informed that his Ministry was concentrating on three important aspects of this industry namely; Research and Developing, Employment Generation and Infrastructure to have a widespread growth in this sector in the country.

Mr Sahai was confident that the sector would attract the required 1.25 lakh crore investment for its overall development within the next five years.

He said reduction of customs duties on packaging machinery to 5 per cent and reduction of excise duty to 12 per cent on packing paper, would together help in substantially reducing the incidence of packaging costs on processed foods in India.

Highlighting the concessions in the Budget, Mr Sahai said excise duty has been reduced from 16 per cent to nil on condensed milk containing sweetening matter, ice cream, yeast, pasta and from 16 per cent to 8 per cent on ready-to-eat packaged food, soya bari and instant food mixes. Excise duty has also been reduced from 8 per cent to nil on processed meat, fish and poultry products.

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