New Delhi, Jun 30 (KNN) Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) hailed the PM Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises’ (PM FME) which has created a conducive ecosystem of 360-degree unparalleled support for the industry.

Reacting over the launch of ‘PM Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises’ (PM FME) the new scheme of Ministry of Food Processing, Chairman TPCI, Mohit Singla said, “Food processing the industry is upbeat with the unparalleled 360-degree support and industry is ready to leverage the benefits of the multiple schemes of the ministry to its best potential.”

“There is nowhere in this world matching the support to the scale and variety (encompassing the entire food processing value chain), which India has currently,'' Singla added. 

He further said that the government had already invoked three landmark and game-changing ordinances in order to liberalize the government control and free the bottlenecks also there are various supporting schemes of the food processing ministry connecting farms to fork.

''The industry is all poised to make use of these schemes and emerge a significant player in the value-added food sector globally,” he said.

Commenting on the challenges, TPCI Chairman said, “the biggest challenge is creative market-linked utilization. The micro-level farmers are not linked with the market value chain and are not industrial entrepreneurs by birth, they need orientation and handholding to process in the direction of the industry demand.  Our inquiry with new entrepreneurs has revealed that almost 80% of SMEs do not know how to utilize these schemes.” 

Citing an example Singla said, “Suppose a farmer has five acres of land and he grows lemon but he is unaware of demand and what to do with his produce? Which market to target? What to make whether lemonade, lime juice, or dehydrate it, to get maximum benefit. But there is no one to guide him at the onset.”

PM FME scheme is a part of “Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan”.  The scheme is to be implemented over a period of five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore.