Govt aims to make India ‘food factory’ of the world: Badal

Team Udayavani, Jun 12, 2017, 2:45 PM IST

New Delhi: Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said the government wants to make India a “food factory” of the world and is fully committed to provide transparent environment to investors.

Laying the foundation stone for a mega food park being developed by KINFRA at Palakkad in Kerala, Badal said the government has made food processing a major thrust area of ‘Make in India’ initiative.

“The present government is fully committed to providing an environment that is smooth, transparent and easy for investors wanting to start an enterprise in India in a bid to make the country a resilient food economy and ‘Food Factory’ of the world,” Badal said. The food park is being set up on 78.68 acres at a cost of Rs 119.02 crore.

“Giving a big push to the infrastructure development for food processing in the state of Kerala, foundation stone of two mega food parks are being developed by Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) at Palakkad and other by Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) at Alappuzha has been laid today,” a statement from the ministry of food processing said today.

The foundation stone for the food park being developed by KSIDC at Alappuzha was laid by Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan, it said. This is being set up on 68.18 acre of land at the cost of Rs 129.15 crore.

“Government of India is providing financial assistance of Rs 50 crore to each of the projects,” the statement added. Each of the mega food parks will leverage an additional investment of about Rs 250 crore in 25-30 food processing units in the park and generate a turnover of about Rs 450-500 crore annually, Badal said.

“Each of the Parks will also provide direct and indirect employment to 5,000 people and benefit about 25,000 farmers in the Central Processing Centre (CPC) and Primary Processing Centres (PPC) catchment areas,” the statement added.

Minister for Food Processing Industries said that the modern infrastructure for food processing created at the food parks will benefit the farmers, growers, processors and consumers of Kerala and prove to be a big boost to the growth of the food processing sector in Kerala.