GUWAHATI, May 26 � The long-awaited Northeast Mega Food Park at Tihu in Nalbari district will be formally inaugurated on May 28.
The primary objective of the Northeast Mega Food Park is to facilitate establishment of integrated value chain, with processing at the core and supported by requisite forward and backward linkages, said a press statement.
It will be formally inaugurated by Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi.
Food Parks have been taken up as an important component of the flagship programme of the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
The scheme is intended for creating infrastructure for farm-level primary processing centre-cum-cold chains in identified clusters, processing of intermediate products, collection centre-cum-cold chains and centralized infrastructure to take care of processing activities which require cutting-edge technologies and testing facilities, besides basic infrastructure for water supply, power, environmental protection systems and communication.
The scheme is proposed to be entrepreneur-driven and is to be implemented on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis.
�The changing demography, lifestyle patterns, food consumption patterns have increased the sales of packaged food, canned/dried processed food, frozen processed food, meal replacement products, condiments, beverages, etc. The current estimated worth of packaged food industry is about US$ 30 billion. The annual growth rate of this sunrise sector is almost 20 per cent. Keeping in view huge potentialities in this sector, the government of India is setting up several mega Food Parks across the country, with the difficult and hilly areas like the north-eastern region, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand getting the top priority,� said the statement.
It said that on an average the project at Tihu will have around 30-35 food processing units with an investment of around Rs 250 crore.
�This would eventually lead to an annual turnover of about Rs 450-500 crore and creation of direct and indirect employment for about 30,000 persons, apart from enhancing livelihood of thousands of farmer families,� it added.