NABARD to offer loans to food processing industries at 9.5%

The loans will be provided for food processing units in a food park and also for creation of infrastructure at food parks

Rural development lender Nabard is likely to disburse loans, from the Rs 2,000 crore corpus allocated in budget, at interest rate of around 9.5% to food processing industries.

In this year's budget Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had allocated Rs 2,000 crore to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for the development of food processing sector in the country.

"Recently food processing ministry officials had met the NABARD officials to discuss about the guidelines for allocation of funds from corpus of Rs 2,000 crore to the industry and it is likely to be offered around 9.5% per annum," a source said.

The loans would be provided for food processing units in a food park and also for creation of infrastructure at food parks, the source added.

Meanwhile, Food Processing Ministry has received 72 proposals from various companies including Adani Group, ITC and Future Group for 17 food parks to be approved in the next two-three months.

Under the scheme (2008-09) of mega food parks, the Food Processing Ministry had sanctioned 42 projects throughout the country. Of this, 25 projects are presently under implementation in various states.

Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal had said that each park is estimated to attract investment of Rs 125 crore, aggregating to total investment of Rs 2,100 crore.

Mega Food Park Scheme aims at facilitating the establishment of a strong food processing industry backed by an efficient supply chain, which includes collection centres, central processing center (CPC) and cold chain infrastructure.

The scheme envisages one time capital grant of 50% of the project cost (excluding land cost) subject to a maximum of Rs 50 crore in general areas, and 75% of the project cost (excluding land cost) subject to a ceiling of Rs 50 crore, in difficult and hilly areas, including north east region and J&K.

Meanwhile, government is working on National Food Processing Policy to reduce wastage of perishables and improve the supply situation.