India is one of the largest producers and exporters of agricultural commodities. Some of the major commodities constituting the Agro-food processing industry in India are sugar, beverages, dairy products, grains, and edible oil. The industry is expected to become one of the largest, projected to reach $535 bn USD by 2025 -26.
The Agro-food processing industry shares near about 11.6% of employment (As per the National Sample Survey, 73rd round 2015-16), and a total of 51.11 lakh persons are engaged in the unincorporated or unregistered food processing sector across ready-to-eat, ready-to-serve, and ready-to-cook segments of the industry.
It shares 10.6% in export which rose by 30% in the first quarter of FY 2022 – 23. The industry shows an impressive CAGR of 10.4% from 2011-12 to 2020-21.
The Central government and the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) are implementing a Centrally sponsored scheme called PM Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PM-FME) from the year 2020-21 for providing financial, technical, and business support for the upgradation and setting up of 2 lakh micro food processing enterprises based on One District One Product (ODOP) approach. The scheme is being implemented for the period 2020-21 to 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs. 10,000 crores.
“Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY)” is promoting the Agro-food processing industry by providing funding, training, capacity building, etc. Under the scheme, the central government had approved the formation of 42 mega food parks, 356 cold chain projects, and 68 Agro-processing clusters to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the industry. PM Gati-Shakti on the other hand reduced the cost of logistics thus propelling India’s export to more than $2.14 billion in final food products in the year 2020 -2021.
For a long time, the Agro-processing industry faces problems regarding inadequate storage facilities, to overcome the challenge central government launched the agriculture infrastructure fund (AIF) scheme which provides funds to increase the post-harvest infrastructure facilities. In complement to that 63 million MSMEs are playing a vital role in India’s Agro-food processing industry value chain through the introduction of various advancements in skills and technology.
“Agriculture Export Policy” has been introduced to harness the export potential of Indian agriculture. Products Specific Export Promotion Forums set up by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) to give impetus to the export of potential products as well as to remove the bottlenecks in the supply chain.
Assistance is provided through several other schemes to promote exports, including food export, viz. Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES), Market Access Initiatives (MAI) Scheme, Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP), Export Promotion schemes of APEDA &Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), etc.
By Pratik Bongade
