New Delhi, Oct 30 (KNN) Food processing sector will witness exponential growth in the coming years, Dr. T.P. Sethumadhavan, Education & Career Consultant said while addressing World Skills Abu Dhabi 2017.

He said that there is much more to explore in ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook segments in India.  FDI in the food processing sector has been increased by 40% during 2016-2017 .Agriculture is ushering into agribusiness and its sustainability depends on diversification in food processing sector.

He also said that availability of skilled labour is one of the major challenges of food processing industry which needed to be addressed. There is a dearth of food technologists, scientists and researchers with Entrepreneurship background in the country and also the gap between available and required skills is huge. He suggested that Innovation in the sector must be linked to market need and academic and research institutes must develop technologies to compete at global level.

India’s retail sector is expected to grow at $1.3 trillion growth from $600 billion over the next three years and 70% of the growth is going to be in food market.

According to the Ministry of Food Processing Sampada Yojana scheme launched by the government is expected to generate around 5 lakhs  jobs by 2022. (KNN/AG)