New Delhi: Union Minister for Food Processing Industries (FPI) Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Wednesday said that Indians were making a big contribution in the rural economy of Italy and that Italian companies should take advantage of the goodwill they enjoyed in India to make further forays into the dairy and ready to eat market in a big way.
Addressing the opening session of the Digital Indo- Italian Business Mission on Food Processing, Badal said that there was a huge Indian diaspora in Italy including a large number of Punjabis.
She said that Indians were contributing to the dairy and food industry in a big way in Italy and Italian food products enjoyed a good reputation in India due to appreciation by NRIs.
She said that with the shift in the industry landscape, many food processing companies were attempting to diversify and expand their product line-up.
She said that versatile equipment that could produce many different product types, allowing companies to increase their output without major changes to their facilities.
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Badal further shared that countries were looking to re-align their supply chains and, India, also known as the world's fruit & vegetable basket, offered ample opportunities for sourcing raw material.
"India also offers one of the fastest-growing markets for finished processed food products. Our experience of handling the pandemic shows that food processing has emerged as a Champion sector."
Speaking about the Digital Sectorial business Mission, the minister said that 23 Italian companies that were part of this Digital Mission were having a virtual exhibition of their products and services and would be having Business (B2B) Meetings with the end-users and other industry players in India.
She added that meetings and the webinars would be spread across the key areas – Fruits and Vegetables, Cereals, Milk and Dairy processing, Packaging and Bottling and also there would be opportunities for technical collaborations with the units located in the Mega Food Parks. She further said that the engagement of the Associations from both India and Italy will ensure that there is an institutional connect as well.
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Union minister also emphasized on the role of India as a potential market. She stressed upon the new era of opportunities in the food processing sector with various segments emerging as the champion segments such as ready to eat, frozen food, superfood and nutraceuticals.
Badal also highlighted various opportunities offered by MoFPI in the form of ready infrastructures such as Mega food parks, Agri export zones and industrial parks/estates/clusters/nodes.
It is to be noted that she shared details of schemes such as PMKSY, PM FME and the recent announcements made under Aatmanirbhar Bharat package.
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