The Indian quality standards need to be harmonised and standardised to globally-accepted standards. For this, Ficci and Technopak report?Land of Opportunities: The Food Industry in India?has called for lifting restrictions on exports and imports, harmonising taxation system, smoothening tariff barriers and transparent merchandising for price discovery of food products. Also, changes in agriculture produce market committee (APMC) should be implemented to reduce the malfunctioning of the Indian marketing system.
Further, efficient price discovery mechanism would have to be evolved for agricultural produce to safeguard the interests of stakeholders. Web-based spot exchanges, like Safal National Exchange, will help fair price discovery. The $200-billion Indian food industry will get a major boost with the formation of a food safety and standard authority.
According to the report, there is an urgent need to create production infrastructure, processing infrastructure, distribution and market infrastructure, along with emphasis on augmenting support infrastructure. High investment is sought from the private sector for infrastructure development. This is essential when the $200-billion (Rs 8,80,000 crore) food industry is expected to touch the $300-billion mark (Rs 1,320,000 crore) by 2015.
Although the Indian food industry is growing fast, the rate is still lower than other countries. Of the total food industry, food processing accounts for $85 billion (Rs 3,74,000 crore). The report suggests systematic efforts should be made to brand Indian fresh and processed food products in the international markets. It, however cites the low level of research and development, one of the major challenges faced by the food industry. Besides, industry academy gap, skill gap, technology gap, regulatory bottlenecks and higher number of small and unorganised players pose other challenges.
Moreover, lack of forward and backward linkages in the food value chain, inadequate agricultural and processing infrastructure and inefficient marketing system are adversely affecting the sector.
The report pitches for collaborative efforts by both the government and industry to create and upgrade the existing agricultural infrastructure, while developing greater linkages to national and international markets. Policy level efforts should be initiated by the government in consultation with farmer groups and the industry to minimise the prevailing gaps among various stakeholders, it says.