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West Bengal is preparing to have a mega food processing park.
Amit Mitra, Minister for Finance, Commerce and Industries, said here at a CII-organised event that the State government has identified 61 acres of contiguous land for the proposed project.
He said, “The Centre will shortly seek expression of interest from potential investors as project developer under a specified scheme.”
Under a structured scheme, the Centre provides a set of special incentives to investors of a ‘mega’ food park. To be qualified for such a project, the developer has to have at least 50 acres of contiguous land.
KPMG-CII study Endowed with high agricultural production, the State has potential to multiply the output of the food processing sector from the current ₹4,144 crore to ₹35,745 crore by 2020, according to a joint study by KPMG and CII.
The consulting firm also said that the sector could generate 2.2 lakh jobs between 2017 and 2020.
Apart from attracting investments from small and medium units, the Minister said ITC Ltd has planned to make a sizable investment in the State in this sector.
Supply chain infra According to the KPMG-CII report, improvement in supply chain infrastructure, ensuring safe inputs (free of pesticide residues), more policy support and establishing more testing laboratories will further boost the sector.
Between August 2013 and August 2014, 50 food processing projects have come up in the State in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries, the report says.
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