Government proposes tripling the level of food processing in India

The government has proposed a tripling of the level of processing in the country's food processing sector by increasing the level of processing of perishables from 6 per cent to 20 per cent and raising value addition from 20 per cent to 35 per cent.

The government also aims at raising India's share in global food trade from 1.5 per cent to 3 per cent by 2015, minister of food processing industries Subodh Kant Sahai informed the Lok Sabha today.

He said the level of processing of food in the country has already gone up from 6 per cent to 10 per cent while value addition has gone up from 20 per cent to 26 per cent during the last five years.

The level of processing of fruits and vegetables in the country, however, is still low at around 2.20 per cent, he said.

The low level of fruit and vegetable processing is due to non-availability of processable varieties of raw materials at the right quantity and quality, seasonable nature of industry, lack of adequate post-harvest infrastructure such as lack of cold chain facilities, transportation, proper storage facilities etc, he added.

In order to increase the level of processing and to promote food processing industries to exploit both the domestic and international market potential, he said, the ministry of food processing has finalised 'Vision 2015' document, which envisages tripling the size of the processed food sector by increasing the level of processing of perishables from 6 per cent to 20 per cent, value addition from 20 per cent to 35 per cent and share in global food trade from 1.5 per cent to 3 per cent by 2015.