Centre to focus on food processing industries specific to local areas: Paswan

In the next five years, Food Processing Industries Ministry will focus on setting up processing units specific to the local agriculture produce in the vicinity of production, says Food Processing Industries minister Chirag Paswan. The move will help improve farmers' income while simultaneously enhancing per capita income and state revenues, he adds.

“I have always believed that the processing units should be set up at the point of production of the agriculture products. If the packaging and marketing is also localised, it is quite natural that it will be beneficial to the farmers. Our ministry will work in this direction in the next five years. Hygiene, quality check and meeting the world standards of the domestic food processing industries will be the key focus areas of the next five years,” says Paswan, announcing the launch of the third edition of World Food India 2024.

“Localised production units can help increase the income of the farmers, per capita income and revenue of the state. With this thought in mind, we are organising the World Food India event. Our idea is to mainstream the Indian farmers,” says Paswan.

World Food India is a global event aimed at introducing the world to the rich Indian food culture and promoting investments in the country's diverse food processing sector. This year, World Food India 2024 will be organised from 19th to 22nd September. "The effort is to showcase our food products on an international level through World Food India. I can confidently say that we will do very well on this front in the coming time," says minister of state Ravneet Singh Bittu.

Recognising the potential of the food processing sector in transforming India into the food basket of the world, the ministry has adopted measures to channelise investments in food processing subsegments. This includes backward linkages, food processing equipment, processing-related R&D, cold chain storage solutions, start-ups, logistic and retail chains, encompassing the entire food processing value chain.

The ministry had organised the second edition of World Food India last year to celebrate 2023 as the international year of millets and to bring together the global food processing industry.

The ministry organised World Food India-2023 in November 2023, during which MoUs worth ₹33,129 crore were signed. Food processing secretary Anita Praveen says a number of MoUs signed last year are currently in the gestation period.