KOCHI:
Kerala’s agriculture sector is poised for a strong growth, riding on rising exports of spices and seafood, and a new energy provided by startups in the sector, experts at CII’s Kerala Food Summit under way here opined.
India’s natural food processing and macro-economic advantage, coupled with other growth drivers such as urbanization, rapidly growing middle class population and rising digital influences on consumers will trigger strong growth in the food processing and food retail segments, they said.
Minister for Agriculture, V S Sunil Kumar, in his inaugural speech, said while holding a summit like this, we should deliberate upon how the benefits of the growth in the industry can benefit farmers who are constantly witnessing a drop in commodity prices. He added a holistic effort focusing on branding the indigenous varieties of agricultural products found in the region, deriving more-value added items should be a top priority. “I’m confident with a collaboration with the farmers collective, research institutes, government and the industry, Kerala can emerge as a strong force to reckon with in the food processing & export industry,” said the Minister.
“The significance of the food industry is that it creates jobs, mobilizes investible resources from the rural sector, promotes agricultural production, adds value to farm products, tackles rural-urban migration and promotes industrialization in an agricultural economy”, said CII Kerala Chairman, Dr S Sajikumar.
CII Southern Region Past Chairman, Navas M Meeran pointed out that increasing exports of spices and seafood underlined Kerala’s strengths in the food sector. He said agriculture and allied sectors contributed to more than 10% of Kerala’s gross state domestic product (GSDP).
“The food sector is already attracting startups, and there are immense opportunities for enterprising startups to fill the gaps in the existing food sector value chain and thereby transform the food processing economy of Kerala and India”, Meeran said.
India ranks first among the world’s milk-producing nations since 1998, and the Indian FMCG sector has been growing at an annual average of 11%, with food products accounting for 43%. The developed world’s food basket consists of 80 per cent of processed food, but in India this share is only 1.3 per cent. This statistic points to the immense possibilities for the food processing sector in India, experts at the summit said. The food processing sector in the state is now taking benefit of the infrastructure available and a series of processing clusters point to this trend.
Some of the major food processing clusters are rice processing in Preumbavoor, Idukki and Kollam, cashew processing in Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam, seafood processing in Alappuzha, and spices processing in Ernakulam, Thiurvananthapuram, Thrissur and Kollam.
