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The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), the industry and the Centre are together setting up a corpus trust fund of ₹50 crore for promoting Indian processed food in international markets.
The fund will help the small and medium scale industries to market their brands abroad by hiring space in the markets or conducting food festivals to increase exports.
Addressing a conference on the future of the food processing industry, Rajshree Pathy, Chairperson, CII Southern Region, said the industry is worth $65-70 billion, growing 9 per cent annually.
But only 2 per cent of the products account for value addition presenting a potential area of growth in the industry, she added.
Speaking on the sidelines, Piruz Khambatta, Chairman, CII National Committee on Food and Processing, said though the export potential is significant most of Indian companies concentrate only on markets that have an Indian presence.
Change mindset “This mindset should change and the companies should invest in creating their own brand and marketing in countries which does not have significant Indian population,” he said.
Market assistance scheme The Marketing Development Assistance (MDA) scheme provides subsidy to companies that promote their products through television commercials and press and for exhibitions. Khambatta said while the scheme is helpful it covers only 25 per cent of the cost incurred.
The purpose of the corpus fund is to help the small and medium scale industries with the further funding, he added.
Stating that Indian food is considered unsafe in the foreign markets, Khambatta said setting up laboratories and testing processed food for compliance with international standards should be considered.
Value addition Alphonsus Stoelinga, the Dutch Ambassador to India, said technology from The Netherlands can benefit the Indian food processing industry in the value addition, as the country’s agricultural output is expected to grow in the next 10 years.
Navas Meeran, Chairman – Foodpro 2015, said the trade show which has 230 stalls with participation from 12 countries will provide a good networking platform.
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