New scheme launched to promote food processing industry in India
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E-mail Xinhua, June 29, 2020
NEW DELHI, June 29 (Xinhua) -- India's Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Monday launched the Prime Minister Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PM-FME) scheme as a part of "Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan" (Self Reliant Campaign) announced by PM Narendra Modi recently.
According to the minister, the scheme would generate a total investment of around 35,000 crore Indian Rupees (around 4.7 billion U.S. dollars) and generate roughly 900,000 skilled and semi-skilled jobs.
Besides, it would also benefit around 800,000 units through access to information, training, better exposure and formalization. The minister released the scheme's guidelines on the occasion.
Highlighting the role of local food processing units, she said that food products manufactured by the rural entrepreneurs in the villages had a long tradition of supplying Indian food products to the local population.
Talking about the challenges faced by food processing sector, the minister said that the unorganised food processing sector faced a number of challenges which limit their performance and their growth. These challenges include lack of access to modern technology & equipment, training, access institutional credit, lack of basic awareness on quality control of products; and lack of branding & marketing skills etc, she added.
Owing to these challenges, the unorganised food processing sector contributed much less in terms of value addition and output despite its huge potential, she further stated.
The PM-FME scheme is to be implemented over a period of five years, from 2020-21 to 2024-25 with an outlay of 10,000 crore Indian Rupees (1.3 billion U.S. dollars). The expenditure under the scheme would be shared in 60:40 ratio between Central and state governments.
The scheme adopts One District One Product (ODODP) approach to reap benefit of scale in terms of procurement of inputs, availing common services and marketing of products. The states would identify food product for a district keeping in view the existing clusters and availability of raw material. Enditem
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