A Round Table-cum-expo held here on Saturday to discuss the role of finance, technology and marketing in Tamil Nadu’s food processing sector provided a platform to several companies and start-ups to showcase their core strengths.
Organised by Southern India Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SICCI) and Chithirai Business Associates with the Ministry of Food Processing Industries and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the event threw light on key strengths and weaknesses of the sector.
Notable speakers included V. N. Shiva Shankar, Vice-President, SICCI, who said that food processing had been practised for ages in India, and the focus had now shifted to food security. “The Indian food industry is considered as a sunrise sector, with high growth potential. In Tamil Nadu, the agriculture and food processing sector contributes to over 15% of the economy, and provides livelihood to nearly 40% of the state’s workforce. All this has been done with a small network of agricultural colleges, business enterprises and talented people in Tamil Nadu,” he said.
In his virtual address, Rick Nobel, Agricultural Attache, Netherlands Embassy, said, “We are celebrating 75 years of diplomatic relations between India and the Netherlands, and one of the core topics of Indo-Dutch cooperation is agriculture. We will be establishing centres of excellence, where technology from the Netherlands will be used in a local context in India, for farmers.”
M. V. Subramanian, MD, Future Focus Infotech, remarked upon the need to give farmers financial education to foster best practices. “Though the picture looks rosy from the outside, with 25,000 MSME food processing companies involved, the base remains agriculture. Technology unites finance with the market. How bank funding reaches the farmer is important. There is a lot of scope in cutting down on wastage from the farmer to processing, to retail sector,” he said.
Mano Thangaraj, Tamil Nadu Minister for Information Technology, was the chief guest and he participated virtually in the event.
Among the other speakers of the day were K. Inkarsal, General Manager, NABARD, Tamil Nadu Regional Office, S.M. Shankar, chairperson, Food and Nutrition Committee, SICCI, and Jebakumar, Global President, Chithirai Business Associates.
An expo of over 20 stalls featuring processed food from different parts of the state was held on the sidelines of the conference. Representatives of start-up companies were given an hour to pitch their business ideas to a panel of investors.
The Hindu was the media partner of the event.
