Bengaluru, the IT capital of India, dwells within a state which surpasses all other states in its GDP growth. A whopping 49% of the state’s income accounts to sectors like agriculture and its allied activities while Karnataka is a major producer of many agricultural products.
With several supporting trends and policies for businesses, India has accounted to several noteworthy achievements to which Indians can stand proud. It is a nation with highest growing GDP worldwide. Finance minister Arun Jaitley recently said that it was absolutely clear that the economy was in recovery mode while it grew at 7.3 per cent in 2014-15.
Further, India is the second-largest producer of food in the world, next only to China. The Indian food sector is witnessing rapid growth and India Foodex, in its seventh edition, strives to bolster the food industry in India. The show will be held from August 21-23, 2015, at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC).
The portfolio of the show includes interesting concurrent events such as Dairy Tech, Grain Tech, Meat Tech India and the newly introduced India Food Park Expo.
The show will have 400 stalls spread over a huge area of 16,000 sq m. It will feature around 28 countries and delegations from countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, China, Nepal and Bhutan will be visiting the exhibition.
Focus on food products
The event will focus on food products, their processing and packaging machinery and other allied industries. It is being supported by various agriculture and food sector organisations. This year the event is focussing on countries like the Netherlands, Turkey, China, Canada, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, and Iran.
Highlights
○ Workshops/ BS Meetings
○ International Agri Business Congress
○ Live Demonstrations
○ Canada is a new entrant to the event; Taiwan’s participation will be on a larger scale this year; and Turkey and China will continue to bemajor participants
○ Trade groups from all states of India
○ Sharing his views on expectations from the event, S Jafar Naqvi, director, Media Today Group, stated, “This year, we expect the event to scale new heights of popularity and success. We hope that it will be a rewarding experience for the exhibitors as well as visitors. The event will certainly help in establishing India in the global market.”
Concurrent events AgriTech India
In its seventh edition, it has proven to be an ideal platform for launching products and services among thousands of farmers and agro entrepreneurs.
GrainTech India
In its sixth edition, it focusses on grains, cereals, spices, oilseeds, feeds, products & technologies. The event seeks to reduce the technological gap in production, processing and supply.
DairyTech India
In its fifth edition, the event gives fillip to the Indian dairy sector, which has grown substantially over the years. As a result, India ranks first among the world’s milk producing nations.
4th Poultry and Livestock Expo
It is an international exhibition on poultry and livestock. India has the largest livestock population in the world. It is a major commercial activity now.
3rd FloraTech India
Floriculture in India has become one of the important commercial trades in agriculture and is being viewed as a high growth industry. India is poised to become the top trade centre in this part of the world. The event will focus on this and many other aspects.
2nd MeatTech Asia
The focus is on upgrading and organising domestic supply chain and processing & packaging of the products of meat and poultry industry. The demand for Indian meat products is high, the world over.
India Food Park Expo
Introduced this year, the event will throw light on efforts undertaken in the development and progress of food industry. It will focus on numerous food products, technologies, reduction of food wastage, value addition and cold chain. There will be theme pavilions on food parks, infrastructure, warehousing, storage, supply chain management, automation, and agri finance.
Rural Energy India will focus on introducing green energy i.e. renewable, solar, wind and waste to energy concepts among farmers.
“India Food Park Expo would highlight India’s efforts to promote the development and progress of this sector for the benefit of Indian farmers, processors, traders and other stakeholders besides generating employment and help in “Make in India” mission,” discloses Naqvi providing details on the new concurrent event.
Further, Indian Flour Milling Industry Conclave, and International Conference on Mega Food Parks will be the seminars held, which will be an attraction in the event, as the conclave will bring together Indian milling industry giants and youngsters will prefer ready-to-cook or ready-to-eat food products over meticulous preparation of dishes. India Food Park Expo would highlight India’s efforts to promote the development and progress of this sector respectively.
There are certain areas where India needs to create a hold yet. A primary issue which is the most basic requirement of any industrial set up is quality infrastructure where the country has now invested and initiated it with food parks.
Another issue is that the infrastructure should be backed by a proper base of skilled manpower with manufacturing setup which can be availed only when there are more of similar setups as well as proper training should be provided to the manpower. The real estate costs are increasing and if the plot is in the vicinity of some well connected transport area high real estate cost which leaves an investor to think twice while engaging a plot to set up a manufacturing unit. The other issues which the food parks scheme has provided a facility of quick licence processing but everytime it is not a case as many of the manufacturers find it difficult to obtain licences. There are various other taxes which are levied under the tax structures by the Central and state bodies which discourage an investor and a manufacturer to have his setup in such an environment. Usually the government has issued some relaxations in the Make in India policy where a manufacturer gets some exemptions in the taxation.
“There is an urgent need for unified action. The stakeholders in the food and beverage industry should come together, interact and engage towards achieving the solutions through consensus. International exhibitions like India Foodex are the ideal platform to initiate such changes,” Naqvi suggested while pointing out the need for initiatives like India Foodex.
The event has seen a steady growth in the number of visitors in its each edition. This year, India Foodex expects to achieve a footfall of around 45,000. Also the number of exhibitors has increased to 400, while last year’s count was 370.
This year, the newly-introduced India Food Park Expo will link each event vertically and the success of it will mean success of all.
