State to aid food processing units

The state government is keen to provide world class infrastructure to food processing units provided the private sector came forward to establish the units. The state will soon have more cold storages and food processing units, thanks to the financial assistance from the Centre and state governments. Food processing units will be set up at Belgaum, Bijapur, Davanagere, Shimoga and Bangalore rural districts.

Principal secretary to the department of Food Processing and Technology R Suresh who held a review meeting with district officials here on Wednesday said that the Centre had sanctioned Rs 4 crore as subsidy for establishing these units while the state had sanctioned a matching grant.

The cold storage will come up at Dharwad and Bagalkot with the state government providing Rs 5 crore each as subsidy.

Suresh said, a mega food park will come up at Chikmagalore with financial assistance from the state government to the tune of Rs 50 crore. Food processing units set up by private firms and supported by the state government are functioning at Malur, Hiriyur, Jewargi and Bagalkot, and the one at Malur is doing well, he said.

Suresh said his department would launch a drive to encourage private sectror to go in for establishing food processing units in different parts of the state so that both farmers and industrialists have benefited. There is good scope for establishing horticulture product processing units in Dharwad as the region has a large scale production of mango, guava, sapota, chilli and maize among others.

Chairman of Karnataka Agro Corn Processing Corporation Ishwarchandra Hosamani, deputy commissioner Darpan Jain and ZP CEO Shikha were present.