TS food processing industry doubles since state formation

Hyderabad: Fixed capital investment in Telangana’s food processing industry has recorded a 53 per cent growth from the state’s inception till 2021, from Rs 4,436 crore to Rs 6,812 crore, according to an industries department report released on Thursday. It rose

The report stated that since the government approved the Telangana Food Processing Policy in July 2021, for setting up special food processing zones in districts, investments of Rs 2,396 crore were recorded in 2022-23, with projects, under various stages of execution.

The new policy was formulated to set up food processing units across 10,000 acres by 2024-25 and attract investments of Rs 25,000 crore, to create 70,000 direct and 3 lakh indirect jobs. The report stated that mega projects, with investments worth Rs 2,500 crore or more, are under various stages of implementation.

According to the report, the new investments would take the fixed capital investments in the food processing industries passed the Rs 10,000-crore mark, which would be more than double the investment before Telangana’s formation.

As per TS-iPASS data, the state government approved 2,140 food processing units from 2017 to 2021, which invested Rs 2,376 crore and provided 29,481 jobs. Most of these investments were made to set up oil mills, rice mills, dairy units and spice processing units, among others.

Also, under the new policy, the state government has set up 21 special zones across 7,150 acres to provide infrastructure for investors.

While the government received 1,496 investment proposals worth Rs 2,396 crore till November 2022, the government issued 1,031 land allotment orders across 3,038 acres, with rice mills, ethanol industries and oil processing units attracting the highest investments.

Besides, the state government is also extending a Rs 10 lakh grant-in-aid to encourage the setting up of micro food processing entrepreneur units, with collateral-free loans and capital grants made to 834 units till November 2022.

These units are ready to launch operations soon, while 3,132 more applications are under process.