Govt to give subsidy to boost small food processing units

Ahmedabad: Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti said on Saturday that her ministry will offer special subsidies to smaller food processing units in a bid to encourage them.

"If you add food processing service to the cold chain, our ministry has decided to provide 50 percent subsidy. If you only set up cold chain for storage and use cold chain vehicles to transport materials to food processing units, we will provide 35 percent subsidy," Jyoti said.

She was speaking at a programme on food processing organised by industry body, ASSOCHAM, in Ahmedabad.

"Our ministry will soon issue guidelines on the same. This will help save crops of smaller farmers from destruction and provide better quality food to consumers," she said.

"I am happy to share that our proposal to set up 200 small food processing units has been given go ahead by the Cabinet. Such units can be set up at an investment of Rs 15-20 crore, and is not restricted by land requirement," Jyoti said.

She also said that her ministry is talking to Railway Ministry to create a system wherein cold chain bogies can be added to super-fast trains, specially for perishable items.

"Our ministry is coordinating with the Railway Ministry on this. If this happens, it will be a big step in the direction of food processing," she said.

Jyoti said that a big step taken by the Centre has been to separate food processing ministry from Agriculture, which has spurred reforms in this sector.

"Without proper processing system, crops get destroyed. China's focus on food processing system has paid dividend, while we have lagged behind.

"I would like to congratulate that PM Modi who worked to strengthen the food processing sector by making a separate ministry, which was earlier working under agriculture ministry," she said.