40% food wastage due to lack of
infrastructure in post-harvest mgmt: AIFPA
Abhitash Singh, Mumbai
(http://fssai.co.in/india-mumbai-40-food-wastage-due-to-lack-of-infrastructure-in-post-harvest-mgmt-aifpa/) (07.10.2013)
India’s
food processing industry is estimated to be worth nearly Rs 5 lakh crore market
and presumed to be growing at the rate of 11 per cent per annum, but according
to K L Radhakrishnan, senior official, All India Food Processors’ Association
(AIFPA), the lack of proper infrastructure in post-harvest management is
responsible for the wastage of food, estimated to be about 40 per cent.
He said the Indian food processing industry is the fifth-largest industry in
the country. The demand is also increasing day by day and the reason for it is
that a majority of the population lives in the urban areas. The number of
working women is increasing. People are more interested in ready-to-cook (RTC)
and ready-to-eat (RTE) food. The need for processed foods is growing at a rapid
pace.
Radhakrishnan said, India is the second- largest producer of fruit and
vegetables all over the world. We are wasting a lot of fruit and vegetables
because we don’t have a cooling and storage system in place. The boilage will
be more if we do not come up with proper solutions. The main reason for this
wastage is that the grading and packaging in our country is not up to the mark.
We don’t have well-developed cold chain and refrigerated van with different
chambers and temperatures.
He added, Our industry has many drawbacks and lacunae. We need cold storage
with multi-chambers. Due to the lack of infrastructure and facilities the food
wastage is valued at Rs 50,000 crore. FDI and investment in infrastructure by
big players can reduce the loss and wastage taking place in the food processing
industry. If we bring down the wastage customers will get fruit and vegetables
at cheaper rate and even farmers will be benefited. The size of domestic market
is increasing. Since large numbers of Indian family are increasing all across
the globe the demand for processed food is increasing.
Food inflation during the last few months has been going up which is hitting
badly not only the common consumers but also the food processing industry in
the country. For quite some time, market prices of fruits and vegetables which
are one of the important categories used for processing have skyrocketed. Even
the prices of other ingredients require for processing like cereals, sugar,
edible oils, meat, and poultry have gone up steeply. As a result, the
production cost of processed food and their retail prices will go up
considerably, said Radhakrishnan.
“We have a very good opportunity to export the processed food all over the
globe. Government should encourage more investment through public-private
partnership (PPP) basis, and in this way we can fill the gap and our food
processing industry will be a success story in the days to come,”
concluded Radhakrishnan.