Importance of Food Processing Industries (FPI)

What is Food Processing?

The food processing industries are nothing new as processing was carried out by people since ancient times. They used salts, sun drying, and fermentation was storing food for a longer period. Today the food processing industry also does the same thing but with the help of advanced technology and better food preservative chemicals....

Working Procedure of Food Processing Industries:

Food processing industries adopt a unique procedure to increase the shelf-life of food products by processing them with chemical reagents and preservatives. Also, these industries blend different food products to form a new food product, for example, food processing industries make sauces by blending tomatoes, with different salts, oils, and spices. Also, some preservative chemicals like citric acid, salt, vinegar, butylated hydroxy toluene (BHT), butylated hydroxy anisole (BHA), calcium propionate, etc. are used by FPI to increase the shelf life of the existing food products....

Importance of Food Processing Industries (FPI):

India is an agriculturally prosperous nation and more than 50% of its population is employed in the agricultural sector. Thus India has a surplus amount of raw materials for food processing industries. In 2018-19 the total production of Horticulture products in India was 313.85 million tons. With the help of food processing industries, India easily processes raw products into processed foods. As the agricultural sector is the major contributor to the Indian economy all the related sector like the food processing industry helps in creating employment and simultaneously benefit the economy of the country. According to the Food Processing Minister in 2020-21, the food processing industry contributes 12.8% to India’s GDP. Food processing is the next step in sustainable development as processed foods are less likely to get rotten thus reducing food wastage. Due to its longer shelf life, processed food can be smoothly exported to different parts of the world....

Scope of Food Processing Industries in India:

In India, there is a great scope of food processing industries and for this reason, during the period March 2017 to April 2000 India has received around USD 7.54 billion worth of FDI in the food processing sector....

Location of Food processing industries (FPI) in India:

The food processing industries are divided into many segments like grain processing, meat and poultry, fruits, and vegetables, marine products, consumer foods, etc. However, all these food items are produced in FPIs located in different regions of India like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. The FPIs in India are mainly located along with the coastal states because of the raw material availability and ease of transportation....

Some of the Challenges to FPI in India:

Climatic Condition: It is often seen that due to bad weather many farmers in India lose their crops every year thus resulting in a short supply of raw materials for the food processing industries. Lack of technology: There is still a need for advanced technology to be adopted in food processing industries to make it more efficient. Infrastructure: Due to poor infrastructure it becomes difficult to transport food items from one place to another. Food Standards: Every nation has its food standards for consumable food items and thus, the food processing industries must satisfy all these food standards. However, there are not enough laboratories in India to check these food items as per the standards....

Some of the Government’s initiatives to Promote FPI:

The ministry of food processing launched a scheme called National Mission on Food Processing in April 2012 that was sponsored by the central government. Under this scheme, the main was to establish more food processing industries in India and proper supervision and monitoring of the existing ones.  Under the vision 2015 for food processing, the Government of India is conducting a study on the growth of food processing industries in India. Its main aim is to enhance the existing food processing industries and expand production capacity by establishing new ones. The mega food park scheme of GOI can prove to be game-changing as it aims to directly connect the farmers with industries via mega food parks. The government is focusing on developing Agri Export Zones (AEZs) and under this scheme, many cities like Ahmedabad, Anand, Vadodara, Surat, Jamnagar, etc. have been converted into Agri-export zones. This zone caters export facilities of the food processing industries in India by strengthening the overall backward linkages with a market-oriented approach and it also helps to create healthy competitiveness abroad as well as in the domestic market. Recently, in various places in India, the Government has sanctioned 60 AEZs comprising about 40 agricultural commodities....