CHENNAI: An integrated food processing industry will be to rural India what the IT sector was to urban India. It is a strong industry, which should not be confined to metros and should extend to other parts to enable overall development, said Piruz Khambatta, CMD, Rasna Private Ltd.He was speaking at the inaugural event of a conference on emerging technologies in food processing sector, held along with the 9th Indian Food Processing and Food Technology Fair, here on Saturday. With nearly one-third of a consumer wallet being spent on food - according to a government report, the food industry is a robust one. Food processing did not face a slowdown even in the times of a grim economic scenario in the country. This industry deserves to grow exponentially, given India’s abundant natural resources like fruits, vegetables and grains, he noted. Inclusion of food processing in the priority lending sector and exemption for fruits and vegetables from the APMC Act (Agriculture Produce Market Committees Act) were some of the recommendations that the industry would make to the government, he explained. Inaugurating the conference, Governor K Rosaiah noted that the country has achieved a record food grain production of 240 million tonne in 2010-11 crop year. The average food processing level in India was only 10 per cent of the total produce, resulting in quality deterioration and wastages in supply chain, the Governor said.
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