Jan 13, 2020
The food processing industry has requested the government to make a new model National Food Processing Policy with the target of increasing farmers’ incomes and strengthening the value-addition ecosystem for agri-produce in the country.
Some states have enacted their own food processing policies, others have integrated their food processing sector policy with their industrial policy.
According to the pre-Budget recommendations submitted to the Government by the food processing industry under the aegis of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), formulation of a comprehensive National Model Food Processing Policy for states to adopt will help capitalize on the diverse food production base and encourage investments in the sector.
The industry chamber has also asked the government to extend the benefits of some of the schemes formulated for the food processing industry, beyond the food parks.
A special fund has been set up by the government with a corpus of ₹2,000 crore, to enable National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to provide affordable credit to entrepreneurs to set up new food processing units or modernize existing food processing units in the designated food parks.
Similarly, the low-interest finance and other benefits of the SAMPADA scheme of Ministry of Food Processing should be extended to industry outside mega food parks.
The Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters (SAMPADA) is an umbrella scheme which incorporates various initiatives and schemes of the Ministry of Food Processing aimed at promoting expansion of food processing and preservation capacities, cold-chain infrastructure, mega food parks and agro-processing clusters.
The industry chamber has also urged the government to ensure that export incentives for agri-products are in line with those extended to some other sectors.