INDIA’S sunrise food processing sector has attracted Rs 50,000 crore FDI in the last nine years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday, as he stressed on reducing post-harvest losses and food wastage. He also said India’s food processing capacity has witnessed significant growth in the last nine years leading to 150 per cent growth in exports of processed food. The capacity of the food processing sector too has increased from a meagre 12 lakh tonne to over 200 lakh tonne. He also spoke on benefits of consumption of millets, and pitched for diversification of the food basket in the public distribution system.

 

Modi was addressing the second edition of World Food India at Bharat Mandapam in the national capital. The three-day event will conclude on November 5. More than 80 countries, 200 speakers and 12 partner ministries, departments and commodity boards are scheduled to take part in the event. The Prime Minister disbursed seed capital assistance to over one lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) and inaugurated a ‘food street’ as part of ‘World Food India 2023’.

 

The event aims to showcase India as ‘food basket of the world’ and celebrate 2023 as International Year of Millets. The first edition was held in 2017, but in consecutive years the international event could not be organised due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “In the last 9 years, the sector has attracted FDI of Rs 50,000 crore. This happened because of the Government’s pro-industry and pro-farmer policies,” Modi said. He highlighted some of the measures, like production linked incentive (PLI) scheme, and establishment of mega food parks, which his government has taken towards further development of the food processing sector.