mega foor parks

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Background

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West Bengal Food Processing Industry Policy

1. Background
The intrinsic strength of West Bengal relating to its food production is its favourable agro-climatic conditions with six agroclimatic zones favouring cultivation of a multitude of crops, vegetables and fruits round the year, availability of perennial rivers and large water bodies for pisciculture, coastal area in the southern part of the State for marine production and substantial production of egg, poultry and meat.

2. The State is well connected, both nationally and internationally through rail, road, air and seaports. The State is served by –
* 16 national & 15 state highways
* 4 divisions of Indian Railways
* 2 airports at Bagdogra and NSCBI, Kolkata. There are proposals for new airports.
* 2 river ports at Kolkata and Haldia. Another seaport is proposed.
* It has international boundaries with Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh with ICPs through export/import takes place.

3. The power situation in West Bengal is favourable for industries.

4. The major agricultural produce of the State are food grains, particularly rice. Potato is the second most important crop of the State after rice. In the Horticulture sector, West Bengal is the major producer of fruits, viz., Mango, pineapple, litchi, mandarin orange, guava and vegetables, viz., tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, brinjal, cucurbits and okra. Major spices produced here are ginger, chilli, turmeric, garlic and coriander. The State also has a strong and vibrant livestock population. Overall, the State is one of the major producers of food material for the country having a strong agri-horticultural raw material resource base relating to Food Processing Industry.

5. Since production of food and agricultural raw materials is substantial, to ensure adequate return to the farmers and avoid losses due to perishable nature of the produces, value addition through processing has become very important and imminent. This would also enable export of food products to the markets world over and avoid glut in the local market.

6. The State Government has identified six crop specific Agri Export Zones to give target oriented boost to the production of such crops, in which the State has natural advantages. They are : Mango AEZ at Malda comprising the districts of Malda and Murshidabad, Pineapple AEZ at Siliguri comprising the districts of Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri and Uttar Dinajpur, Litchi AEZ at Malda comprising the districts Malda, Murshidabad, South 24 Parganas and North24 Parganas , Potato AEZ at Hoogli and comprising the districts of Hugli, Howrah, Bardhaman and Paschim Medinipur, Vegetables AEZ at North24 Parganas comprising with districts Nadia, Murshidabad and North24 Parganas and tea AEZ at Darjeeling.

7. Twelve food parks are currently being set up in the State: twoat Siliguri and Malda in North Bengal and the remaining ten at Sankrail(Howrah), Haldia and Shankarpur (Purba Medinipur), Chakgeria, Sultanpur and Kakdwip (South-24Parganas), Nazat (North- 24Parganas), Kandua (Howrah), Dankuni(Hoogli) and Murshidabad in South Bengal. Proposal for setting up of new food parks and Mega Food Parks as also terminal markets and auction centers are on the anvil.

8. Pack houses with multipurpose cold storage facility to facilitate export have come up at Malda and Barasat. One Perishable cargo complex is functioning at Kolkata airport and two are being set up at Bagdogara airport and at Haldia Seaport. Post Harvest Management system and cold chain infrastructure is being developed under the National Horticulture Mission.

9. With food safety norms becoming more stringent world over for production of hygienic and quality food products, it has necessitated adoption of tough quality control measures at every stage of Food Processing Industry. To keep pace with this requirement, Quality Control Laboratories have been established at Jadavpur University, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vishwavidyalaya and Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidyalaya.

10. Already 382 no. of potato cold storages and 52 no. of multi purpose cold storages with total storage capacity of 54 lakh M.T and 56 no. milk chilling plants are operating in the State. Fruits, vegetables, fish, milk and meat Processing Units have already started operating in the State and processing units on UHT treated milk, frozen meat, alcoholic beverages, and ready to eat food products are in the pipe line.

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