Mega Food Park (MFP) Scheme

• Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) has been implementing Mega Food Park (MFP) Scheme to provide modern infrastructure facilities for food processing industries along the value chain from farm to the market.
• The Ministry provides financial assistance for setting up of Mega Food Parks in the country.
• The proposals are invited through Expression of Interest (EoI) which are approved on merit as per the criterion specified under the applicable guidelines of the scheme.

Mega Food Park (MFP) Scheme:

• It was launched in 2008-09 to give a major boost to the food processing sector
• The Scheme aims to facilitate the establishment of a strong food processing industry backed by an efficient supply chain, which may include collection centres, primary processing centres and cold chain infrastructure.
• It is based on the “Cluster” approach and envisages the creation of state of art support infrastructure in a well-defined Agri / horticultural zone for setting up of modern food processing units in the industrial plots provided in the park with a well-established supply chain.
• Mega food park typically consist of supply chain infrastructure including collection centers, primary processing centers, central processing centers, cold chain and around 25-30 fully developed plots for entrepreneurs to set up food processing units.
• It is implemented by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which is a Body Corporate registered under the Companies Act.
• So far 22 Mega Food Parks are operational across the country.

The food processing units are set up at a Central Processing Centre (CPC) with need based common infrastructure such as

1. Basic enabling infrastructure like developed land/plots, roads, drainage, water supply, electricity, effluent treatment plant etc;
2. Common processing and preservation infrastructure like warehouse, cold storage, deep freezers, laboratory, common food processing line, packaging line etc;
3. Non- core infrastructure as common support facilities like Administrative building, Canteen, Workers’ hostel, trade facilitation centres etc. and
4. Standard factory shed as a part of plug and play facilities for Micro and Small Enterprises(MSEs).

• Due to these reasons, cost of developed land inside the park may be higher than undeveloped land outside the park.

Benefits:

• Enables faster operationalisation of new units in MFPs,
• Reduces their cost of operations
• Gives them access to essential facilities within the park.
• Provides ready to use factory sheds as a part of plug and play facility.

Ministry has taken various measures for expediting the implementation of sanctioned projects:

• Holding regular review meetings with the promoters to help remove bottlenecks in implementation;
• Facilitating the promoters in obtaining the required statutory clearances from concerned authority;
• Modifying the provisions of the scheme guidelines to facilitate implementation of the project;
• Implementing the scheme for Creation/Expansion of Food Processing and Preservation Capacities as a sub-scheme of Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana which provides financial assistance for setting up food processing units in Mega Food Parks;
• Creating awareness of benefits available under the schemes for the establishment of food processing units in the park.