Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI)
This is a ministry for food processing industries and is responsible for developing a strong and vibrant food processing sector. The scope of the ministry is vast. It includes everything you can think of food and plays a role in anything you eat or any industry you can think of manufacturing/processing foodstuff - right from Pepsi, Coke to milk dairies to Atta manufacturers to icecream manufacturers to tomato ketchup manufacturers to noodles to vegetable processors to ready to eat food to fish to any food you can think of. I hope now you can imagine the scope of this industry and the important role it must be playing in India.
Some Facts
The importance of this ministry in this country could be well understood with the following facts:
# India is world’s second largest producer of fruits and vegetables - but hardly 2% of the produce is processed.
# India is the land of spices producing about 30% of the world production - processed for value addition and export.
# India is the world’s largest milk producer - about 15% of the milk produced is processed through the organised sector.
# India grows about 22 million tons of oilseeds every year covering most of the varieties.
# India has large marine potential with varied fish resources along about 8000 km of coastline and 28000 km of rivers.
# India’s livestock population in the largest in the world - only 1% of total meat production is processed to value added products.
So, a lot and lot needs to be done in food processing sector considering the huge potential India has and MoFPI is playing a great role in encouraging industries to process food and add value to it.
How is it Useful to Industries
MoFPI is highly useful to food industries in a number of ways:
# Subsidies - It provides subsidies in variety of segments like, for starting a new manufacturing unit, for renovating an existing unit, for constructing a cold storage, for building a green house, etc. etc. Industries could get lots of benefits through these.
# Food Parks - It encourages development of food parks which involves lots of common facilities for the food industries like common storage facility under refrigerated temperature, common effluent treatment plant, common warehouse, etc. The concept is catching up fast in India.
# Guidelines - It provides useful guidelines and standards for various aspects of the food industries like FPO, CODEX, PFA, etc. Industries use these guidelines and standards to get various certification and to standardise their processes and products. Nowadays, industries are not recognised without these certificates.
Considering the population of India with a strong middle class, demand for processed/convenience food is increasing rapidly. This gives a great opportunity to industries to invest in food processing in India with liberalised overall policy regime.