The Hindu Business Line : Food processing: `Retail boom to boost demand'

Retail boom in the country will create a huge demand for food processing sector, according to the Union Minister of State for Food Processing, Mr Subodh Kant Sahay.

Addressing presspersons here, he said that many retail players are planning to invest in the country in a big way. Some of them have selected front-end partners and are entering the country. This sector will create a huge demand for food processing industry in the coming years, and 2007 will be year of food technology, he said.

HUGE INVESTMENT

The Government is expecting investments to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore in the food-processing sector during the 11th plan period. The Government has reduced the tax levels in this sector to a minimum, he said.

SINGLE LAW

The Government has merged 16 laws relating to the food-processing sector into one law. This law will be in force from the next financial year, Mr Sahay said. The Minister urged the Karnataka Government to amend its APMC Act with Contract Farming Act so that cluster farming, demand-oriented farming and raw material-oriented farming will become economically sustainable to farmers.

Stating that the land holdings of people in the country are becoming small, he said there is a need to provide organised farming activity to those people. That will happen if APMC Act is amended and placed with organised farming.

To achieve this, the Government will create infrastructure jointly with State Governments or under the PPP (public-private partnership) model, he said.

However, the Minister allayed fears that retail sector will affect the small shop owners in the towns and villages. Now the country has three kinds of consumers — billionaires, middle class people and the rural poor. The big retail players may focus only on a select section of these segments, he said.

Stressing the need for mega food parks in Karnataka, he said such parks would help provide infrastructure for branded industries coming to the State. The Centre is ready to give Rs 50 crore subsidy, if the State Government come forward in this regard.

MARINE FOOD PARKS

Mr Sahay said that the Centre is planning to come out with sector-wise task force in Karnataka for the development of fisheries sector. The State Governments and the Centre will sort out the problems related to backward linkage problems in this sector through this task force.

Stating that the Centre is planning to set up three marine food parks in three coastal districts of Karnataka, he urged the Karnataka Government to come forward with proposals for quality testing labs in these marine food parks.

The Karnataka Fisheries Minister, Mr B. Nagaraja Shetty, was present on the occasion.

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