Odisha MSME Dept to host FoodPro 2022 on July 21

Bhubaneswar, July 12 (KNN) To support the food processing ecosystem of Odisha, the State MSME department is organising Odisha FoodPro 2022 on July 21.

It has collaborated with the department of agriculture and farmers’ empowerment for the food industry event.

Manufacturers, investors, producers, food processors, start-ups, policy makers and various other stakeholders from the Indian food industry will be a part of the event.

Speaking at its curtain raiser on Monday, MSME Minister Pratap Deb highlighted Odisha’s inspiring journey in the last 20 years.

“Odisha has transformed from a state with hunger deaths to a food grain surplus state. It is high time we attract investments from big industries to utilize our existing potential.”

The Principal Secretary of MSME department Ranjana Chopra said the event will be a unique business platform for hundreds of women self-help groups to scale up as entrepreneurs and also for big industries for making large scale investments in the state.

“We aim to make Odisha a key hub in the country in the food processing sector in the near future and a destined global hub for the eastern part of the world,” Chopra said.

Reflecting on the Mukhyamantri Krushi Udyog Yojana, a scheme launched to promote agri-entrepreneurship in 2018, Commissioner Sanjiv Chopra said the scheme did not get any encouraging response.

“Lack of awareness among the farmers, entrepreneurs and absence of facilities like product aggregators and supply chain are the main reasons for the lukewarm response,” he added.

The Commissioner said to gauge the actual potential of the food processing unit the State government has started a study to find out marketable surplus of 29 crops including six fruits.  (KNN Bureau)