Mega Food Park to take off in India’s most ‘agri-rich’ state
The UP Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commission has given an approval to the proposal submitted in 2010, joining the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries in approving it.
“The project was, until now, caught in a web of technical complications regarding the land lease. That has been resolved,” a spokesperson for the commission told FoodNavigator-Asia.
Value chain development
The spokesperson said the ‘mega food park’ would leverage the state's position as a leading Indian supplier of agri resources such as wheat, sugar, potatoes, milk and livestock.
“The food park would develop the value chain in the state from the farm to the market. We expect major national and multinational investments into food processing after the park comes up,” he said.
“We are looking at increased realisation for farmers, creation of high quality rural processing infrastructure, reduction in wastage, and capacity building of the producers and processors,” he added.
The food park approach would help local food processing units to meet environmental, safety and social standards that would boost exports.
“The park will also provide processing, packaging, environmental protection systems, quality control laboratories and trade facilitation centres,” he added.
The project is part of the central government’s ambitious programme to raise India's processing of perishables from the existing 6% to 20%, value addition from 20% to 35% and the share in global food trade from 1.5% to 3% by 2015.
Uttar Pradesh is the second state to recently approve a food park, after Gujarat set up a mega food park that is already showing benefits.
In January, Gujarat became host to the first Indian plant by Indonesian confectionary maker INBISCO under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the company and the state's industry facilitation arm, iNDEXTb.
Under the MoU, INBISCO said that it would set up a green field facility in the food park at Sanand at an investment of US$200m, which would manufacture confectionary products like cookies and chocolates.
