Governemnt to allow 100% FDI in food retail: Badal

Soon after allowing 100 per cent FDI in food processing and packaged food sector, the government has announced to incorporate 100 per cent FDI in food retail.

“Food worth Rs 92,000 crore is wasted in India every year because of poor facilities but, this wastage will come down sharply with the government's plan to set up numerous agro processing clusters across the country and nod to 100 per cent FDI in food retail,” said Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Minister for food processing.

The government is also looking at a proposal to set up cold storage in existing mandis across the country for fresh fruits and vegetables to help farmers, added the minister.

The government is also on road to transform India's food economy with an addition of 32 lakh tonnes of food processing capacity worth Rs 9,000 crore in the past two years, which is expected to reduce wastage by 10 per cent.

The new addition of processing capacity (set up by the mega food parks) will reduce wastage of fruits and vegetables worth Rs 9,000 crore per annum because the same value of these commodities can now be processed," Badal said.

The minister said 100 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail of "swadeshi food produced and manufactured in India" is a significant step that will generate employment, help farmers and reduce wastage of food.

"Food processing is an employment intensive sector and to facilitate investments, a single window facilitation cell has been created to handhold overseas and domestic investors in food processing sector," she said.