ShareFood processing: a priority sector for India
India’s food minister believes that with a better supply chain, the country could be a global food processing powerhouse.
India’s food minister believes that with a better supply chain, the country could be a global food processing powerhouse.
Food processing’s growth rate of 8.4% is one of the fastest in India’s economy. The food processing industry is one of the major employment-intensive segments, constituting over 13% of employment generated in all registered factory sectors in 2012-13.
However, the Minister for Food Processing Industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, said food processing urgently needs to develop the ability to integrate the gap between farmers and the consumer. In spite of its difficulties in moving goods efficiently, India’s supply chain woes include outdated warehousing, unscrupulous middle-men, massive delays at interstate weighbridges and enormous levels of wastage.
According to Assocham, India’s cold chain network is highly fragmented with more than 5,000 facilities across the country. The chambers of commerce representative body estimates that the temperature controlled warehouse market will reach USD 9.8bn by 2017 with an approximate capacity of 46.6 million tonnes. “However, most equipment in use is out dated and based on single commodities contributing to the below-capacity utilization of the stores,” Assocham said.
The sector is slowly improving thanks to some innovative and environmentally friendly model cold-storage facilities.
Meanwhile, technology firm Dearman is targeting countries with fast-developing cold chains like India for its liquid nitrogen engines to tackle the “environmental challenge” caused by an increasing number of vehicles on the road. A report commissioned by Dearman predicted the number of refrigerated vehicles on the road in Asia could reach 15.5m by 2025 (compared to just 3m in 2013).
From April 2014 to February 2015, the food processing sector, which largely allows foreign countries to invest directly in India and is one of the priority sectors under Prime Minister Modhi’s high-profile “Make in India” initiative, saw USD 421.5m in investment from overseas.
Food processing’s growth rate of 8.4% is one of the fastest in India’s economy. The food processing industry is one of the major employment-intensive segments, constituting over 13% of employment generated in all registered factory sectors in 2012-13.
However, the Minister for Food Processing Industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, said food processing urgently needs to develop the ability to integrate the gap between farmers and the consumer. In spite of its difficulties in moving goods efficiently, India’s supply chain woes include outdated warehousing, unscrupulous middle-men, massive delays at interstate weighbridges and enormous levels of wastage.
According to Assocham, India’s cold chain network is highly fragmented with more than 5,000 facilities across the country. The chambers of commerce representative body estimates that the temperature controlled warehouse market will reach USD 9.8bn by 2017 with an approximate capacity of 46.6 million tonnes. “However, most equipment in use is out dated and based on single commodities contributing to the below-capacity utilization of the stores,” Assocham said.
The sector is slowly improving thanks to some innovative and environmentally friendly model cold-storage facilities.
Meanwhile, technology firm Dearman is targeting countries with fast-developing cold chains like India for its liquid nitrogen engines to tackle the “environmental challenge” caused by an increasing number of vehicles on the road. A report commissioned by Dearman predicted the number of refrigerated vehicles on the road in Asia could reach 15.5m by 2025 (compared to just 3m in 2013).
From April 2014 to February 2015, the food processing sector, which largely allows foreign countries to invest directly in India and is one of the priority sectors under Prime Minister Modhi’s high-profile “Make in India” initiative, saw USD 421.5m in investment from overseas.