Processing of fruits in India to reach 20 per cent of production by 2015: minister
20 Aug 2011
The government has adopted a `Vision 2015' document, which envisages enhancing the level of processing of perishable commodities like fruits and vegetables to 20 per cent, enhancing value addition to 35 per cent and raising India's share in global food trade to 3 per cent by the year 2015.
India is the second largest producer of fruits after China in the world, with 71.5 million tonne production in 2009-10, a major part of which is wasted or left to decay.
Fruit production of China was 109.6 million tonnes in 2008.
At present, about 2.2 per cent of the fruits and vegetables produced in the country gets value-addition through processing. The low level of processing has been due mainly to fragmented supply chain and lack of adequate processing infrastructure along the value chain, minister of state for food processing industries Charan Das Mahant stated in the Rajya Sabha in a written reply on Friday.
The Vision 2015 document has suggested a strategy to ensure faster growth of the food processing sector.
He said the ministry of food processing industries (MFPI) has been implementing various plan schemes for promotion and development of food processing industries by providing assistance to entrepreneurs so as to encourage private investment in the sector.