UP garners food processing proposals worth Rs 1,890 cr from 368 firms

The projects are estimated to generate 30,000 jobs and are mostly pertain to rice mills, oil seeds, fruit and vegetable processing, and consumer food products

The Uttar Pradesh government has received food processing sector investment proposals worth nearly Rs 1,890 crore from different private companies.

These projects pertain to various food processing verticals, including rice mills, consumer food products, oil seeds and fruits/vegetables processing, among others.

According to UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who also heads the food processing department, the government was providing a bouquet of capital and interest subsidy to the private sector enterprises under the UP Food Processing Industry Policy 2017 with a view to attracting investment.

He said the government had received 368 private investment proposals worth nearly Rs 1,890 crore in the food processing sector, which were estimated to generate 30,000 job opportunities.

In a recent meeting of the state level empowered committee (SLEC), 78 proposals worth Rs 232 crore were taken up for consideration, of which 68 proposals with estimated investment of Rs 154 crore were cleared for cleared for the subsidy component.

While, 32 companies were recommended for the capital subsidy, the remaining 36  private sector entities were deemed entitled for the interest subsidy.

UP horticulture and food processing director S B Sharma said earlier four meetings of the SLEC had taken place, which cleared 111 projects with investment profile of Rs 415 crore.

On September 10, the Yogi Adityanath government had announced the state’s maiden agricultural export policy targetting to augment farmers’ income and promote export of farm commodities.

The policy aims at creating a robust institutional mechanism for agro exports, promoting the cultivation of export oriented commodities and also encouraging the cultivation of environmentally friendly agricultural crops.

The new policy set the target of doubling the total export of agricultural commodities in UP from the current level of US$ 2,524 million or Rs 17,591 crore by 2024 with the help of creating a network of farmer producer organisations (FPO).

Under the agri export policy, the government would promote cluster farming of export oriented commodities over an area of at least 50 hectares by offering sops. For example, the state would provide subsidy of maximum Rs 10 lakh for cluster of 50-100 hectares during 5 year period, with 40% amount to be provided in the first year itself.

However, the cluster would have to ensure at least 30% of production is exported to be eligible to benefit under the scheme, apart from conforming to good agricultural practices mandated by the respective importing countries’ standards.

Since, UP is a landlocked state, the Adityanath government announced to give transport subsidy to the export consignments. The eligible agro commodities would be given Rs 10/kg and Rs 5/kg as export subsidy for air and sea transport respectively.

At the same time, students pursuing agricultural export courses would be given 50% fee subsidy to encourage the grooming of new age professionals in the field.