The ASSOCHAM has asked the Indian government to build a Corpus Fund of Rs. 7,500 Crore to boost technology and skill development activities in the food processing industry.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has recommended that a Corpus Fund worth Rs. 7,500 Crore should be created in order to speed up technology integration and skill development processes in the fish, meat and poultry industry to raise production more than 25% in the next two years, as reported by Commodity Online.

At present, 70% of poultry, fish and meat production are controlled by unorganized sector; hence, their processing levels remain stagnant at 2%-4% although their domestic production has already surged to more than 100 Billion Tonnes annually. The production of fish is estimated to rise to more than 7.25 Million Tonnes. Moreover, India has currently 40,000 food processing units out of which 10,000 are indulged in poultry, meat and fish processing.

The proposal of creating the fund by ASSOCHAM is primarily meant to upgrade technology and skills in the food processing industry to raise the production of poultry, meat and fish by 25% in upcoming two years. Due to poor post harvesting equipment, storage facilities and lack of food processing technology, India Inc loses over 25% of its total produce.

The ASSOCHAM further said that lack of essential facilities such as insufficient cold chain, poor storage facilities and erratic power supply led to several problems in the marketing and transportation of processed products.

Owing to hectic licensing process and tough rules and regulations, meat and fish processing units are not coming at a large scale and have been controlled by unorganized sector.

Thus, India exports only half of its meat production to the Middle East countries. However, the country is doing well in the field of fish export despite lacking developed fish processing technologies. The reason for India's good performance in fish export is huge coastal benefits.

According to a Research Analyst at RNCOS, "Change in lifestyle of Indians, especially in urban areas, has spurred the demand for processed food products including fish and meat. Thus, the food processing market needs huge attention in future. Moreover, the Indian Food Processing Ministry should offer incentives and subsidies to drive the industry developments. The Indian food processing sector is still underdeveloped, indicating to the large potential for future growth."

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