Mega food Park inaugurated in Kerala
01 October 2020, New Delhi: Kerala’s first and nation’s twentieth mega food park in Palakkad district of Kerala was virtually inaugurated today by the Union Minister for Food Processing Industries, Mr. Narendra Singh Tomar and Chief Minister of Kerala, Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan. Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, Mr. Rameshwar Teli was also present on the occasion. This project will give impetus to the development of food processing sector.
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Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Tomar said that Mega Food Park will prove to be a milestone in the development of the food processing sector in Kerala. It will leverage an additional investment of about Rs. 250 Crore in 25-30 food processing units in the park and would eventually lead to a turnover of about Rs. 450-500 Crore annually.
The Park will also provide direct and indirect employment to 5,000 persons and benefit about 25,000 farmers in the CPC and PPC catchment areas. Twenty mega food parks in the country have been opened in collaboration with the Centre, seventeen other projects have also been approved, including a park in the Alleppey district of Kerala has been approved.
Big boost to food processing industry
Kerala Chief Minister Mr. Vijayan said that this MFP will play an important role in providing assistance and relief to the farmers of Kerala. With this, the conditions of farmers will improve with the involvement of agricultural entrepreneurs. Expressing satisfaction over its establishment in the said time-frame, he said that this is one of the important schemes of Kerala, along with the Petro Park, Kochi-Bangalore Industrial Corridor, Defense Park, and other projects.
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All these have become a better medium to project Kerala in front of investors. Mr. Vijayan said that Kerala entrepreneurs will take advantage of the assistance being received from the Centre and the food park is expected to give a big boost to the food processing industry.
The KINFRA Mega Food Park has been set up in 79.42 acres of land at a project cost of Rs. 102.13 crore. The facilities created by the Implementing Agency at Central Processing Centre (CPC) of this Mega Food Park include Multi-product Cold Storage-5000MT, Drywarehouse-12000 MT, Pack House (Sorting Grading, Packing) 10MT/Hr, Ripening Chambers- 120MT, Condiment processing with mechanical drying facility-15MT/day, Food Testing Laboratory besides state of art enabling infrastructure.
The Park has a common administrative building for office and other uses by the entrepreneurs and 04 Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) at Ernakulam (Mazhavanur), Thrissur (Koratty), Malappuram (Kakkanchery) and Wayanad (Kalpetta) districts with Packhouse facilities for primary processing and storage near the farms in the catchment area to benefit farmers. This Mega Food Park will benefit the people of Palakkad-District as well as nearby Districts of Malappuram & Thrissur of Kerala and nearby district of Coimbatore of Tamil Nadu.