The Union Cabinet Minister of Food Processing, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, has urged UK companies to participate in India's food processing value chain, saying a market worth $600 billion is waiting for the British firms.
Badal was addressing a round-table in London to promote her ministry's first-ever World Food India summit in New Delhi in November and called on British companies to use the platform to finalise their entry and collaboration plans.
Badal, at the Indian High Commission in London, said, "India has a $600 billion retail sector, of which 70 per cent is just food retail. This is set to treble in the next three years and in the next five years, Indians will be spending 50 per cent more on food. That is the kind of huge market we have. This market is waiting for you in India to participate in any part of the food processing value chain."
She said, "India-UK share many warm bonds and I hope we can take our food diplomacy to the next level with World Food India."
Using Amazon's commitment of a $ 500 million dollar investment in the Indian food sector as an example of the growing foreign investor interest in the industry, the minister highlighted a range of incentives being offered by the Indian government in the form of mega food parks and cold chain schemes.
Badal said, "As we are creating the right infrastructure, we think the platform is now ready for World Food India, which is going to be a platform for people to meet and take partnerships to another level. Geographically, India is also very close to food importing countries, like UAE or Japan, and we have a highly skilled cheap labour force and one of the fastest growing economies in the world."
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) supported summit to be held between November 3 and 5 in New Delhi is planned as a biennial conference to bring together various states of India to showcase business opportunities as well as their own unique cuisine as part of a Food Street, which is also likely to be replicated in the UK.
CII said in a statement, "The summit is designed to offer an unusual peek into India's food and culture as well as opportunities to invest and prosper from one of the world's largest consumer markets."
On the second day of World Food India, Ministry of Food Processing Industries signed 22 more MOUs worth 5,281 crores bringing the total figure of MOU’s signed in two days of WFI to Rs. 73,281 crores.
Second day witnessed eminent companies such as Emami, Transworld, Sapphire, Danfoss, Keventer Agro amongst others signed the MoU’s with the Ministry of Food Processing and Industries for making investments in various food processing facilities. The event also marked the presence of Cabinet ministers like Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India; Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Minister of State, MoFPI, Government of India; Niranjan Jyoti, Minister of State, MoFPI, Government of India, Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon`ble Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India and Shri Suresh Prabhu, Hon`ble Minister of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.
Ministers addressed the stakeholders and about the efforts that their ministries are taking to increase opportunities for investments in the Indian economy with a special focus on the food processing sector.
The first session was addressed by Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India along with Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Minister of State, MoFPI, and Government of India. The agriculture minister said that the Government has launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana for modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management from farms to retailers to give impetus to the agrarian economy and food processing industry.
Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Hon’ble Minister of State for Food Processing Industries said “ there is an increased belief about India’s progress in the rest of the world. The Government has taken revolutionary steps in promoting farmer’s welfare.”
Nitin Gadkari, Hon`ble Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, said “ under the Prime Minister’s vision of prioritizing the infrastructure development, India has fast paced the road development to 28 km per day from just 2 km. “We are enabling an infrastructure of multi-modal transport and network of hubs across India, which will transform the food logistics in the country and will allow farm produce from one state to the other state in a cost-efficient manner and in less time. He also stated that with GST being implemented, the barriers to the free movement of goods had been dismantled. The focus of the government now is on the development of coastal and inland waterways and linking of rivers among others.”
Speaking at the conference focusing on “Retail – Base of a Billion Consumers”, Shri Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, said, “With changing food habits of the Indian masses, the food processing industry is all set to become the sun-rise industry of the future. And retail is one of the most important component of the whole value chain to reach the end consumers, without which the concept of food processing cannot happen. We need to work on all aspects of food processing, and retail is important for development of the whole food processing industry.”
Apart from the sessions addressed by the ministers, the event was also graced by ministers of partner states such as Haryana, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Assam and Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat and ministers of focused states such as Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
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