India’s food processing sector to touch $535 billion in next 5 years
India’s current overall level of food processing is just 10%, which can be rapidly increased to capture market opportunities and improve outcomes for farmers, said Pashupati Kumar Paras, Minister, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI) at a virtual conference on ‘“Global Value Chain: Creating Value Proposition for Food Processing” organized by The Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM), on 27 August.
Speaking at the event, the minister stated that food processing has an important role to play in linking Indian farmers to consumers in the domestic and international markets. “India’s food processing sector is one of the largest in the world and its output is expected to reach $ 535 billion by 2025-26,” he said.
He also mentioned, “Milk production in the country is expected to increase to 208 MT in FY21 from 198 MT in FY20, registering a growth of 10% year-on-year.”
“Unfortunately, there were various challenges that were faced by the food processing industry when the pandemic hit for the first-time including shortage of labour, supply chain gaps due to lockdowns, factories were shut down, and there were huge losses of material.
But on the upside, the pandemic has accentuated the critical importance of food safety and the management of food surpluses in the country. To this end, the sector’s policy measures have shifted the focus from livelihood to processing, distribution, and marketing”, he added.