792 projects approved so far for setting up food processing industries by pvt sector: Union Minister

New Delhi [India], July 23 (ANI): As many as 792 projects out of a total of 818 projects have been approved so far for setting up food processing industries by the private sector with approved Grants in Aid of Rs 5,792 crores, informed Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Prahlad Singh Patel on Friday.
Patel said the government has been consistently encouraging and incentivising increased private sector investment for the overall development of the food processing sector to promote value addition in the agriculture and allied sectors and reduce wastage.
The minister said 792 projects out of a total of 818 projects have been approved for setting up food processing industries so far by the private sector with approved Grants in Aid of Rs 5,792 crores.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, he said, in order to further increase private sector participation in the sector, the Government has recently taken three major initiatives.
"The government has approved the introduction of Production Linked Incentive scheme for the food processing sector with an outlay of Rs 10,900 crore to support the creation of global food manufacturing champions and support Indian brands of food products in the international market," said the minister.
"With a view to extending incentives to the private micro food enterprises, Self Help Groups (SHGs), Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Cooperatives, MoFPI is implementing centrally sponsored "PM Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises Scheme", he said.
The scheme aims to provide financial, technical and business support for upgradation/setting up of two lakh micro food processing units based on the "One District One Product (ODOP)" approach in a period of five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs 10,000 crores.
"In the budget speech for 2021-2022, Government has announced the expansion of the scope of 'Operation Greens scheme' from Tomato, Onion and Potato (TOP) to 22 perishable products, so as to boost value addition in agriculture and allied products and their exports," stated Patel.
"The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) is implementing a Central Sector umbrella scheme - Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) since 2016-17 for overall growth and development of food processing sector, mostly through private sector participation," he emphasised.
Under the component schemes, MoFPI provides credit-linked financial assistance (capital subsidy) in the form of grants-in-aid to entrepreneurs for setting up food processing/preservation industries with farm-level infrastructure like primary processing facilities, collection centres etc. (ANI)