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Food & Bev Tech unveils ; plea to create Brand India & up food exports
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Saturday, 23 August, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Harcha Bhaskar, Mumbai
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fiogf49gjkf0d A strong focus on creation of Brand India to step up exports, marked Friday’s unveiling of the 5th essay of Food & Bev Tech 2014, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), at Bombay Convention and Exhibition Centre, Mumbai. The event will be on till August 24, 2014.
The inaugural session started with opening remarks by Piruz Khambatta,chairman,Food and Bev Tech 2014, who is also chairman, CII National Committee on Food Processing, and CMD, Rasna Pvt. Ltd.
Khambatta said, “Growth in the food processing sector could change the face of India, with rise in potential employment in the sector,increase in GDP, and reduction in wastage.”
Talking about inflation, he said that there was constant rise in inflation for agricultural commodity, comparatively processed food rarely increased MRP of ketchup and RTE foods. So he appealed to the government to not impose taxes on food processing sector as it had helped common people during inflation.
He felt that the Gujarat model had increased agriculture productivity upto 10% and other states should follow it. He urged the government to create Brand India for processed food products which would boost exports.
The keynote panel included dignitaries R Mukundan, immediate past chairman,CII WR, & MD, Tata Chemicals Ltd; Dinesh Shahra,founder & MD,Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd; Dinesh Waghmare, MD, MAIDC; and Anurag Shrivastava,commissioner, horticulture & food processing, department of horticulture and food processing,Government of Madhya Pradesh.
Speaking at the inaugural session, Mukundan said, “We have to make every attempt to make an event the right place for all food processing companies to come under one roof, network, and learn new things.”
Shahra, in his keynote address, mentioned, “It is the food processing industry which should liberate India from hunger, food wastage and foreign exchange through exports.” Giving examples, he said, “On daily basis, people in the US consume 90% processed food whereas India consumed less than 50%. Though today India is 2nd largest producer of tomatoes in the world, still we import them at times, whereas only 1% of total production is consumed."
He also mentioned that Indian government should look beyond grains and explore other products and value addition.
Srivastava welcomed investors to the state of Madhya Pradesh and explore the food processing sector as it was the third-largest producer of wheat and largest of soyabean.
Further, he said, “In three years, MP would be the largest producer of onions as well,since MP government believes in making agriculture business a profitable destination."
Waghmare stated, “India is 2nd largest in agriculture and 5th in food processing sector. There is record of growth in production,consumption and exports of food processing industry in India due to increasing income and rising numbers of nuclear families." According to him, cluster-based approach for food processing industry will bring quality products and high production.
Giving vote of thanks, Khambatta said, "CII's growth vision for food processing industry is to do to rural region of India what IT sector did for urban India."
CII and the Assocom Institute of Bakery Technology and Management (AIBTM) are organising a workshop on imparting basic knowledge on new product development in bakery.
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