State to have food processing policy soon

The Orissa government is in the process of formulating a new policy for the food processing industries in the state, said industry minister Raghunath Mohanty, here today.

The state owned Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Ipicol) is working on it and the policy will be finalised soon.

Addressing the participants in a seminar on ‘Export prospects of agri and processed food products of Orissa”, Mohanty said, the state government is according priority for the setting up of food processing units in the state.

Though there is ample scope for exports, inadequate knowledge is acting as a barrier in the way of export of agri and food products. The Orissa government has already sent a proposal to set up a mega food park at Khurda to the Union government.

Introducing the theme of the seminar, industry secretary Saurabh Garg said, the export of fruits and vegetable from the country is only 1.4 percent of the global exports and it is still low in Orissa. Though there are about 10,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the food processing sector in the state, they are mostly rice mill and flour mills. This calls for diversification of the sector. Besides marketing, technological upgradation and safety are important issues in this sector, he added. Industries director, Hemanta Sharma said, the Industrial Policy Resolution (IPR), 2007 treats the food processing industries as thrust area. Along with the export oriented units (EOUs), this sector enjoys maximum scales of incentives. Since the agro and food processing industries have tremendous employment potential through backward integration with agriculture, the Orissa government has constituted a task force under the chairmanship of the development commissioner for this sector. The task force has already prepared an action plan to promote the food processing industries in the state.

Arabinda Padhee, director, agriculture production, pointed out that the issues like reduced electricity tariff for such industries, revival of sick units, issue of organic certificate to entrepreneurs to enhance the value of products and formulation of a separate labour law for the seasonal industries need to be addressed for the growth of this sector. B N Palai, general manager, (outreach promotion), IPICOL, coordinated the event.