First Mega Food Park in Rajasthan launched to improve supply chain and storage practices

09-Apr-2018 - Last updated on 09-Apr-2018 at 02:56 GMT

Set up by Indian food firm CG Corp Global, the Mega Food Park spans 85 acres and comprises a central processing centre and a few primary processing centres. © CG Corp Global

A raft of food processing, storage and supply chain services are featured in the first ‘Mega Food Park’ to be opened in the state of Rajasthan.

Greentech Mega Food Park Pvt Ltd, developed at a cost of Rs 113.57 crore, will benefit about 25,000 farmers in Ajmer and the neighbouring districts. It is also expected to provide employment to about 5,000 people.

Set up by Indian food firm CG Corp Global, the Mega Food Park spans 85 acres and comprises a central processing centre (CPC) as well as well as four primary processing centres (PPCs) at Jaipur, Nagaur, Tonk and Churu.

The CPC includes cold storage of 5,000 metric tonnes (MT), deep freeze of 2,550 MT, individual quick freezing (IQF) of 2 MT/hr, dry warehouse for raw materials of 2,500 MT, dry warehouse for finished goods 5,000 MT, silos of 6,500 MT, a 10 MT/hr pack house, a steam generator of 8 MT/hr and other food processing facilities.

India’s Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who launched the Mega Food Park, said it would leverage an additional investment of about Rs 250 crore in 25-30 food processing units in the park and would eventually have a turnover of about Rs 450-500 crore annually.

Benefiting farming & processing

With Collection Centres near the farmers and the four PPCs spread across Rajasthan, the Mega Food Park will ensure farmer produce and harvest get fair prices and market linkages through the specialist processing industries at the Park.

“The real beneficiaries will be the farmers and the agriculturalists, which can now look at better support systems to bring their product to the market and get concomitant benefits,” said Varun Chaudhary, executive director of CG Corp Global and MD of the Mega Food Park.

“We are committed to the success of the Food Park in order to benefit and connect the farmer to the market and make him the true owner of his output and to use it for maximum returns.”

Badal said that the modern infrastructure for food processing at the park would benefit the farmers, growers, processors and consumers of Rajasthan and the adjoining areas immensely, and give a huge boost to the growth of the food processing sector in the state.

She also said that the Ministry, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is focusing on boosting India’s food processing sector so that agriculture can grow exponentially — and lead to the doubling of farmers’ incomes through the implementation of projects under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana scheme (for the development of agro-processing) and the government’s Make in India initiative.