Centre keen to develop food processing infra in Bengal

These would be in addition to the existing food testing facilities and the mgea food park in West Bengal, Teli, the union minister of state for food processing industries said at an e-conference organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce. "In addition to the existing 10 food testing facilities and one mega food park, the Centre is thinking of developing more such facilities in the state including mini food parks and cold chain facilities very soon.

The Centre is keen on developing more food processing infrastructure in West Bengal including mini food parks and cold chain facilities, Union Minister Rameswar Teli said on Tuesday. These would be in addition to the existing food testing facilities and the mgea food park in West Bengal, Teli, the union minister of state for food processing industries said at an e-conference organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce.

"In addition to the existing 10 food testing facilities and one mega food park, the Centre is thinking of developing more such facilities in the state including mini food parks and cold chain facilities very soon. "The central ministry will get in touch with different stakeholders in the state in this regard for inputs and develop schemes accordingly," the union minister said.

He emphasised on the benefits of the PM Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PM FME) scheme launched under the aegis of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. The scheme will generate a total investment of Rs 35,000 crore and create nine lakh skilled and semi-skilled employment and benefit eight lakh units through access to information, training, better exposure and formalisation, Teli said.

Elaborating on PM FME, he said it adopts one district one product (ODOP) approach to reap the benefits of scale in terms of procurement of inputs, availing of common services and marketing of products. West Bengal food processing secretary Subrata Gupta said provision of a new gamma irradiation center at Chinsurah in Hooghly district will be made to facilitate exports and talks are on with Israel for it.

The recently launched Matir Smristi Scheme launched by West Bengal is expected to benefit 2.5 lakh people in the dry districts of Birbhum, Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, West Burdwan and West Midnapore districts by utilising 50,000 acres of barren land, he added..