Odisha's first MITS Mega Food Park inaugurated

Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal today inaugurated Odisha's first Mega Food Park here set up at an investment of Rs 80.17 crore to benefit tribal farmers.
"The MITS Mega Food Park at Rayagada will generate an annual turnover of about Rs 500 crore and provide employment for 5,000 people and benefit 25,000 farmers," She said after inaugurating the MITS Mega Food Park.
Accompanied by Petroleum and Natural Gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Kaur said this is the seventh Mega Food Park operationalised in the last three years by the NDA government.

"The Mega Food Park will leverage an additional investment of about Rs 250 crore in 25-30 food processing units in the park," she said.
Kaur said the Ministry of Food Processing Industries is focusing on boosting the food processing industry so that agriculture sector grows exponentially and become a major contributor to doubling the farmer's income and 'Make In India' initiative of the government.
In a bid to give a major boost to the food processing sector by adding value and reducing food wastage at each stage of the supply chain with particular focus on perishables, she said adding that her ministry is implementing Mega Food Park Scheme in the country.

"Mega Food Parks create modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market with strong forward and backward linkages through a cluster based approach," she said.

Common facilities and enabling infrastructure is created at Central Processing Centre and facilities for primary processing and storage is created near the farm in the form of Primary Processing Centers (PPCs) and Collection Centers (CCs), she pointed out.
Under the Scheme, Government of India provides financial assistance upto Rs 50 Crore per Mega Food Park project. The Rayagada mega food park spread over 50.05 acre of land. The food park is having facilities of fully operational industrial sheds for SMEs, developed industrial plots for lease to food processing units, Rice Processing Complex of 12 TPH, Dry Ware-House of 10,000 MT, Cold Store of 2500 MT, Multi Fruit Processing facility and other food processing facilities and others.

The Park also has a common administrative building for office and other uses by the entrepreneurs and 6 Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) at Kashipur, Padampur, Umerkote, Koraput, Digapahandi and Khordha having facilities for primary processing and storage near the farms.
Besides the farmers of Rayagada, the Mega Food Park will also benefit the people of adjoining districts of Nabarangpura, Ganjam and Khurdha, she said.