New Delhi, Jul 25 (IANS): India's food processing industries have emerged as an important part of the country's economy with an increasing contribution to GDP, employment and exports, according to information provided in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The percentage share of processed food export in agri-food exports has gone up to 23.4 per cent in 2023-24 from 13.7 per cent in 2014-15, Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Ravneet Singh said in reply to a question.

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) has approved 41 Mega Food Parks, 399 Cold Chain projects, 76 Agro-processing Clusters, 588 Food Processing Units under PMKSY scheme as on June 30 this year.

During the last eight years ending 2022-23, the food processing sector has been growing at an Average Annual Growth Rate (AAGR) of around 5.35 per cent.

Gross Value Added (GVA) in the Food Processing sector has also increased from 1.61 lakh crore in 2015-16 to 1.92 lakh crore in 2022-23.

The employment in Food Processing Industries has increased from 17.73 lakh in 2014-15 to 20.68 lakh in 2021-22 as per the latest Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) report.

MoFPI through implementation of PMKSY across the country helps in the creation of modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to retail outlet for promotion, overall development and growth of Food Processing Industries, through creation of employment opportunities, reducing wastage of agricultural produce, increasing the processing level and enhancing the export of the processed foods, an official statement said.

The ministry also provides financial assistance as capital subsidy in the form of grants-in-aid (GIA) under various component schemes of PMKSY for setting up of new food processing industries/units/projects and also expanding the existing ones, the statement added.