Government proposes to extent benefits of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to food parks so that the country could quickly emerge as a regional hub for food processing and SEZ benefits are available only to SEZ Developers and units. Mega Food Park Scheme presently operates under different set of guidelines framed by the Government. In the 11th Plan the Ministry has approved a new scheme to establish 30 Mega Food Parks with a view to provide state-of-the- art infrastructure for food processing sector in the country on a pre-identified cluster basis with a strong backward and forward linkage and to provide value addition of agriculture commodities including poultry, meat, dairy, fisheries etc. in a demand driven manner. The ownership and management of the Mega Food Park would vest with a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in which organized retailers, processors, service providers, farmer groups etc. may be the equity holders. The products of the Food Processing Industries located in a Mega Food Park can be sold to domestic as well as export market.
This information was given by Shri Subodh Kant Sahai, Minister of Food Processing Industries in the Lok Sabha today in a written reply.
