Govt projects Rs 1 lakh crore investment in food processing

The ministry of food processing industries has projected investments to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore during the 12th Plan period to increase the country's food processing capacities. While Rs 10,000 crore is expected to come from government agencies and venture capital firms, the remaining amount would come from entrepreneurs. "The country is able to process only 10% of all the food produced. The government is attempting to increase this capacity by another 10 percentage points. In order to achieve this, we need investments of Rs 1 lakh crore," said K Rajeswara Rao, joint secretary, ministry of food processing industries.

Addressing the inaugural of a national workshop of executive development programmes in food processing at the National Institute for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (NIMSME) here on Friday, he said the country lost Rs 55,000 crore annually because of lack of sufficient food processing facilities. "If we could increase our processing capacities to 20 %, we could save Rs 10,000 crore. Besides, the industry gives a return of about 20% to the entrepreneurs," he said.

Source: http://www.fnbnews.com/article/detnews.asp?articleid=28105&sectionid=2