Govt calls for private investment in food processing sector

New Delhi, Mar 21 (UNI) With India producing 10 per cent of world's fruits and vegetables but having one per cent share in global exports, the government today called upon private and corporate sector to take benefit of this tremendous opportunity and invest in this area.

This is estimated to be about Rs 18,000 crore of the world's total production of fruits and vegetables.

Speaking at the Cold-Chain Summit-2007 which concluded here today, Food Minister Sharad Pawar said the Indian farmers were increasingly diversifying to horticultural crops for achieving better farm income. And, with the changing lifestyle and work culture of people there has been an increasing demand for processed foods in the country.

This sector has become not only a huge business opportunity for the investors to get higher returns but also a major employer, Mr Pawar said.

Stating that supply chain is crucial for this sector, Mr Pawar said the cultivation of fruits and vegetables was largely regional and there was a need to transport the produce over long distance.

This produce is mostly perishable and prone to damages and could prevent the post-harvest losses ranging to 30 per cent.

For this purpose, Mr Pawar said cold chain was need of the hour.

Since the cold-chain has been localised in some regions, there is need to broadbase the resources and ensure that more regions derive the benefits of cold chain.

Meanwhile, Food Processing Minister Subodh Kant Sahai said there was need for clusterised and demand driven farming. He urged the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to identify cluster areas for farming and indicate routes for setting up processed food businesses in the north, south, east and western parts of the country.

Mr Sahai asked the CII to provide suggestions on taxation front as the food processing industry attracted more taxation. He called up on the gathering to make 2007-08 as the year of Food Technology to bring about revolution in Food Processing Sector.

Speaking on the occasion, the Secretary, Agriculture and Cooperation, Dr P K Misra said cold chain is essential for the farmers to maintain quality of their produce from realisation to delivery. He stated storage of agricultural produce remains a big challenge in rural areas because of limitation of electrical power supply. Cost effectiveness and sustainability of the cold chain are to be addressed.

The summit discussed the issues to set up cold chain infrastructure for value creation and rural entrepreneurship in horticulture.

UNI