The food industry in India is one of the biggest in the world and it offers excellent opportunities for investments along with great returns. Experts strongly suggest that the Indian food processing industry is destined to experience a huge growth within the next few years. This means that India is perfectly poised to contribute greatly to the world food trade each and every year. The food sector in India has over the years evolved into a major high growth and super high yield market because of its excellent scope for value addition. This has naturally encouraged a lot of investors to come up and contribute to the further growth of the food processing industry in India. The attractive fiscal incentives which are further backed by lucrative economic policies have helped in stimulating strong growth within the food processing sector.
Statistics reveal that the food and grocery sector in India is definitely the 6th largest all across the globe. In fact, the food and grocery market constitutes a whopping 65% of overall retail market in the Indian subcontinent. The great thing about the food ecosystem in India is that it is strongly supported by the Indian Government which means that a number of favorable policies have contributed to the further growth of the food sector in this country. Ministry of Food Processing Industries is actually making a number of important efforts which can assist investors who want to be a part of the food industry in India. This means that a lot of proposals relating to foreign collaborations, joint ventures and industrial licenses have been sanctioned along with 100% export oriented units.
Being one of the largest markets for food and grocery products in the world, Indian food sector contributes almost 70% of sales. Indian food processing sector also contributes to about 32% of India’s overall food market. This makes the Indian food processing sector among the biggest industries in the country in terms of total figures of production, exports, consumption and the expected growth. The food sector is responsible for 8.39% and 8.80% of total Gross Value Added or GVA in the spheres of agriculture and manufacturing respectively. This amounts to a total of 6% of the overall industrial investment and 13% of the country’s exports. As far as the gourmet food market of India is concerned, it has grown to produce a value of US$ 1.3 billion and is growing with a CAGR rate of 20%. It is believed that the organic food market in India is slated to grow thrice by the year 2020.
The growth of the Indian food processing industry has also been further aggravated by the advent of online food ordering apps and business. Even though it is a segment that is still at its beginning stages, there is a lot of potential in this sphere for fast expansion. Companies like Swiggy, Zomato and FoodPanda are helping the food chains and restaurants to make more sales and this has naturally led to economic boom in the food sector.