India today invited France to set up a food park adopting the latest technology and a laboratory to check the quality of processed food in India.
“We would like to tell them that set up a food park here with latest technology so that it can serve as a role model for other (food processing) units,” Food Processing Minister Subodh Kant Sahai told a visiting French team led by Minister of Foreign Trade Anne-Marrie Idrac.
“We want a joint quality-testing lab to be set up here,” Sahai told the French delegation at a function organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
The offer to set up the laboratory jointly is aimed at allaying apprehension about the safety standards adopted in India in processing farm items.
India had earlier pitched for uniform global standards to make processed food trade easier and remove anomalies in safety standards.
Stressing the potential of India in the processed food sector, the French Minister said, “All the French companies in my delegation are willing to invest in India or export to India in the long run.”
The French minister pointed out different “bottlenecks” facing the Indian processed food sector, including lack of adequate infrastructure and quality control mechanism.
India still accounts for just below 2 per cent of the global processed food trade.
With the recent pace of impressive growth, 14.7 per cent in 2008-09 from about 7 per cent three years earlier, the government is now targeting to attract investment of Rs one lakh crore by 2015.
