First Mega Food Park in Odisha and seventh in the country in three years inaugurated
01 June, Rayagada
The first Mega Food Park in Odisha and seventh Mega Food Park in the country operationalised during the last three years by the NDA government at the Centre was inaugurated here Thursday by Union Food and Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur.
Union minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of state for Food Processing Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Harsimrat Kaur Badal said under the visionary guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ministry of food processing industries is focusing on boosting the food processing industry so that agriculture sector grows exponentially and become a major contributor to doubling the farmer’s income and ‘Make In India’ initiative of the government.
She said, to give a major boost to the food processing sector by adding value and reducing food wastage at each stage of the supply chain with particular focus on perishables, ministry of food processing industries is implementing mega food park scheme in the country.
The mega food parks create modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market with strong forward and backward linkages through a cluster based approach.
The mega food park by the M/s MITS Mega Food Park Pvt. Ltd, has been set up in 50.05 acre of land at the cost of Rs 80.17 crore and the centre has provided a financial assistance of Rs 50 crore to the project.
The food park is having facilities of fully operational industrial sheds for SMEs, developed industrial plots for lease to food processing units, rice processing complex of 12 TPH, dry ware-house of 10,000 MT, cold store of 2500 MT, multi fruit processing facility and other food processing facilities.
The park also has a common administrative building for office and other uses by the entrepreneurs and 6 Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) at Kashipur, Padampur, Umerkote, Koraput, Digapahandi and Khordha having facilities for primary processing and storage near the farms.
The mega food park, she said, will benefit not only the people of Rayagada but also the people of adjoining districts of Nabarangpura, Ganjam and Khordha. It will leverage an additional investment of about Rs 250 crore in 25 to 30 food processing units in the park and generate a turnover of about Rs 450 to 500 crore annually.
The park will also provide direct and indirect employment to 5000 people and benefit about 25,000 farmers in the CPC and PPC catchment areas.
Ms Badal said that the present government is fully committed to providing an environment that is smooth, transparent and easy for investors wanting to start an enterprise in India and in a bid to make India a resilient food economy and the food factory of the world the government has made food processing a major thrust area of ‘Make in India’
She congratulated the farmers who will be benefited by the mega food park and said the mega food park would generate huge employment opportunities for the people of this region.