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PLI scheme for food processing to boost facility expansion & employment generation
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Wednesday, 14 April, 2021, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
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Union Government production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to promote processed food manufacturing, with an estimated cost of Rs 10,900 crore to the exchequer over the next six years is seen to bring a positive sentiment among the food processing industry in the country.
Appreciating and acknowledging the initiative taken by Government in approving a production-linked incentive scheme Varun Berry, managing director, Britannia Industries, said, “It will give a much-needed boost to the food processing sector and also promote growth and investments. While the initiative paves the way for many Indian brands to go global, it will also generate sizeable employment opportunities in the sector. Overall, it is a step forward in building an Atmanirbhar Bharat.”
According to Prashant Parameswaran, managing director Kottaram Foods, now part of Tata Consumer Products, noted, “The timing is right for Government to come out with the PLI scheme with the UN’s declaration of 2023 as International Year of Millets. The move is expected to give a fillip to small grain food processors.”
“At Nandu's we have a transparent and robust supply-chain system. Since we are a hyper-local omni-channel brand with fully-integrated operations from farm-to-fork, we have plans to scale up operations and enhance our product portfolio to meet the growing consumer demands. For the next five years, the target is to have 600 Nandu’s stores across India. Hence the PLI scheme in food processing will provide a boost to home grown brands, generate employment and draw the attention of foreign investors into a sector that is largely unorganised. At a time when the world economy is hit by the pandemic, the current scheme will enable domestic brands to become self-reliant and provide the best of products to its customers, said Narendra Pasuparthy, founder and CEO, Nandu's.”
“Hoping if implemented well, the PLI scheme,” according to PC Musthafa, co-founder and CEO, iD Fresh Food, “could give a big boost to our business. We deal with highly perishable fresh food that is devoid of preservatives and chemicals. As a result, all our fresh ready-to-cook food products have a short shelf life. The challenge with this is that we cannot waste much time on transportation. Therefore, we need a local manufacturing facility in every region we operate. Currently, our three factories at Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad and one in Ajman, UAE. This year, we plan to open a plant in Delhi to cater to northern markets. This is where the PLI scheme will really help us.”
“We recently invested Rs 40 crore in our Bengaluru facility, the world's largest Idly-Dosa batter factory. We intend to replicate this model in other cities and hope the PLI scheme would give us a boost to expand faster. However, we will need more details in terms of the eligibility, the subsidies, the commitment from Government and their expectation from us, Mustafa told F&B News.”
“Currently iD Fresh is present across 45 cities in India, UAE and USA. We are working to reach 60 cities in this fiscal. Plans are for new factories this year: one in Delhi and the other in the US. However, if the PLI scheme is implemented well, we expect to set up more factories helping to expand faster,” he said.
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