DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

In a bid to grow the Indian food industry to Rs 1,320,000 crore (US$ 300 billion) by 2015 from Rs 8,80,000 crore (US$ 200 billion) in 2006-07, FICCI has suggested early implementation of a five-point package of measures.

The major push, says FICCI, will come from retail industry that is likely to grow by 30 per cent in the next five years and become Rs 110 billion industry by 2010. According to FICCI, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, marine and fish, meat and poultry, edible oils, staples, alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages, breads and bakery, confectionary and packaged foods are the key industry segments which offer tremendous growth potential and investment opportunities.

Further, Indian wine is gaining a lot of recognition across the globe; the domestic wine market has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of more than 25% and Ready-to-Eat (RTE) foods growing almost at 40% per year. To help the Indian food industry taken the big leap, FICCI has suggested the following measures:

1. The government should set up Inter Ministerial Working Group (IMWG) under the leadership of Ministry of Food Processing with FICCI as a knowledge partner to look at comprehensively addressing various issues that are holding this sector back.
2. Agribusiness issues should be addressed from the entire food chain perspective as addressing certain portions has not yielded the desired results.
3. Restructure the tax system to reduce the impact of multiple levies and reduce the final price of products
4. Create an enabling environment for modern food retailing as this will benefit the entire value chain linking the farmer to the consumer.
5. Implement the amended APMC act and the FSSA act in letter and sprit.

Further, for sustainable growth of the retail food industry, the steps suggested are:

• Effective implementation of Model Act,
• Linking retailers with suppliers,
• Experimenting with various retail formats,
• Efficient & effective utilization of existing resources,
• Modernization of Mandis
• Addressing issues in contract farming
• Harmonization of taxes
• Public private partnerships in infrastructure development
• Understanding the existing needs of the customers & Identifying the potential customers
• Focus on product innovation and skill development

Source: FICCI

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