AP charts 5-yr plan for food processing sector

To cover food parks, cold chains, schemes for marine, aqua, diary & poultry products

The Andhra Pradesh (AP) industries and commerce department is drafting a five-year plan for the food processing sector, which will be implemented from the next financial year, according to principal secretary (state food processing) Sabyasachi Ghosh.

“We have already arrived at a few broad ideas that have to be implemented. Preparation of the draft is currently under way, which will be submitted to the chief minister in a couple of weeks for approval,” he told mediapersons on the sidelines of Assocham’s national summit on ‘Opportunities in cold chain’ in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

The proposed plan will cover the entire ambit of the food processing sector—including food parks, integrated cold chains and schemes for marine, aqua, diary and poultry products—by encouraging private participation, Ghosh said.

“Subsidies and incentives are the two areas that we are planning to lay emphasis on. At present, we are working out the investment modalities. This, however, will be driven by the market forces as to where these investments will come in by the private sector,” he added.

According to Ghosh, Andhra Pradesh currently has a cold storage capacity of 1 million tonne. The state stands first in the country with capacity utilisation of 92%, followed by Karnataka (60%) and Maharashtra (51%).

Stating that reefer (refrigerated) transportation was critical in the entire cold storage chain, he said the government needed to step in to incentivise and subsidise the purchase of reefer vehicles.

“Fortunately, the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) scheme has an infrastructure component that talks about how investments made in the reefer trucks sector could be benefited. We are seeing how best we can bring all these things together in our five-year plan,” Ghosh said, adding that he would be meeting the central government officials shortly to explore the possibilities of using new and renewable energy to power the food processing and cold chain system in the state.