Chennai
Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit, in his inaugural address at CII’s 13th edition of Foodpro 2019 here on Friday, said as of now the food processing industry contributed to around 9 pc of India’s manufacturing output and the sector witnessed a growth of 11 pc and is expected to touch $600 bn next year. The food processing sector offered employment to close to 12.8 pc of the workforce in the organised sector and about 13.7 pc of the workforce in the unorganised sector, he said.
“India’s dairy sector is an example of the multiplier effect the food industry can have in reducing the financial stress and boost the complementary income of farmers. Dairy as a third of the food industry could generate around 6000 jobs for generating every 1 lakh litres of milk and the industry employs about 90 lakh people. It could go to 1.2 crore,” Purohit noted. He also said the government had set a target to create direct and indirect employment for 5.30 lakh people in the food processing sector by 2020.
Purohit said India could become the food factory of the world what with a set target of Rs 100 lakh cr worth of investment coming in the next five years and to promote the food processing sector, 100 per cent FDI was allowed under the automatic route and the same percentage was also allowed through government approval route for retail trading in respect of food products manufactured or produced in the country.
The Centre provided financial assistance of up to Rs 50 crore per mega food project to address critical gaps in the value chain, including infrastructure, modernisation, productivity, post-harvest management and quality control, he remarked.
Rameswar Teli, Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, in his address, said the food processing ministry has launched several schemes for the benefit of food processing sector. In TN, three schemes have been completed out of 12, and there are efforts to create mega and mini food parks in the state with the allocation of 50 acres and 10 acres each respectively.
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