Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries sanctioned 17 Mega Food Parks

Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries on 24 March 2015 sanctioned 17 Mega Food Parks (MFPs). These parks are aimed at creating state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities to reduce food wastage and create value addition.

Details of the 17 MFPs
• The 17 MFPs will be spread across 11 States. While Kerala, Telangana, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were sanctioned two MFPs each whereas Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar were sanctioned one MFP each.
• These food parks will attract around 2000 crore rupees in modern food processing infrastructure including 850 crore rupees grant-in-aid provided by the government to these establishments.
• An additional collective investment of 4000 crore rupees is also expected to be invested in 500 food processing units to be set up in these parks.
• The annual turnover of the food processing units in these MFPs would be more than 8000 crore rupees.
• These parks will generate direct or indirect employment for 80000 people.
• It is estimated to benefit around 5 lakh farmers once they become operational.
• Out of the 17 MFPs six have been sanctioned for various state government agencies and eleven to private sector.
• For the first time, under the changed eligibility criteria public authorities are also allowed to establish MFPs.

Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries is implementing the MFP Scheme since 2008. So far 42 MFPs have been sanctioned (including newly sanctioned 17 MFPs). Currently, 25 projects are under implementation and two have become operational and three more are expected to be operationalised by June 2015.

About Mega Food Parks Scheme (MFPS)
The Scheme was launched in 2008 by UPA Government. Its focus is to overcome the bottlenecks in the food supply chain due to which around 33 percent food is wasted in India making it the largest food waster in the world.
A Mega Food Park entails an area of a minimum of 50 acres and works in a cluster based approach based on a hub and spokes model. Union government provides a financial assistance of up to 50 crore rupees to set up a MFP.