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India Calls For Greater French Investments In Food Processing
With one of the biggest and best known food processing industries, France should have been the obvious partner of choice for India. However, the French companies remain hesitant in moving ahead.
Union food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has exhorted the French food processing companies to significantly enhance their engagement with the Indian market.
“The French have one of the world’s most renowned food processing industries and India has the fastest growing food and retail market in the world. Hence, it would be natural for the two to work together intensively. However, we find that some other countries have been much more aggressive in the Indian market and are taking the lead, while the French remain rather limited in their footprint in India,’’ Badal told Media India Group in an interview at SIAL in Paris, soon after having inaugurated, what’s touted as the world’s largest food processing fair along, with her French counterpart.
“India presents a unique opportunity in the food processing and retail domain. Food constitutes a very large share of the total retail market, which itself is set to treble in the coming few years. As the disposable income increases, an average Indian family will spend even more on food and hence will open up a large and untapped market,’’ Badal said, adding that while many other countries had spotted the opportunities and were stepping up their investments in India, the same was not the case with the French companies. “Of course, the French enjoy a high reputation in this industry and they have a lot of know-how and technology to share with Indian companies. However, the cooperation remains far from achieving its true potential and it is a pity because the moment of doing business with India is here and now,’’ Badal said.
A sea of change
Looking back at over four years of her work in the food processing ministry, Badal said that there had been a sea change in all segments – from the number of mega food parks and related infrastructure on the ground to the foreign direct investment as well as ease of doing business, besides a very healthy growth in both-the food and retail business in India. “There are a few more initiatives that I want to complete in this term of the government so that we can set the foundation for a much more rapid and indeed smooth development of the sector after the elections next year,’’ Badal said.
