Chordia Food Products of India is to create a new food park near the city of Pune at a cost of some Rs1 billion (€20.9m) over the next seven years.
According to a report from Business Line, the 100-acre park is designed to help small and medium-sized food processing companies in the area compete on a level playing field with the bigger players.
Pradeep Chordia, director of the Chordia Food Park, told Business Line that the first two years would see a total investment of around Rs120 million, with five boutique companies, five small-scale producer and one or two medium-sized firms leasing the first few units.
Chordia said the Ministry of Food Processing had already sanctioned the food park status to the project and had contributed Rs40 million to develop various facilities.
The park was also negotiating a number of concessions with the local authorities, he said, adding that the national government had already sanctioned about 25 per cent capital subsidy with an upper limit of Rs5 million for the units to set up their venture. Talks were also on with banks for reduced interest rates for the units.
The park will offer companies a complete range of facilities from processing, packaging, transportation and finance, and would even help them to market the products.
The food park is one of many springing up around India as companies see the potential in the processed food industry there. Chordia said that just 2 per cent of India's total produce was processed as against 70 per cent in developed nations.