Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal inaugurated the Zoram Mega Food Park at Khamrang village in Kolasib district in Mizoram on July 20. This is the first of its kind mega food park operationalised in the state.  

What is the significance of Mega Food Park?

The Mega Food Parks (MFPs) scheme aims to provide a mechanism to bring together farmers, processors and retailers and link agriculture production to the market so as to ensure maximisation of value addition, minimisation of wastages and improving farmers’ income. 

The primary objective of the scheme is to provide modern infrastructure facilities for the food processing along the value chain from the farm to the market with a cluster based approach based on a hub and spokes model.

It includes creation of infrastructure for primary processing and storage near the farm in the form of Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) and Collection Centres (CCs) and common facilities and enabling infrastructure like roads, electricity, water, Effluent Treatment Plant facilities, etc at Central Processing Centre (CPC). 

These PPCs and CCs act as aggregation and storage points to feed raw material to the food processing units located in the CPC.

Under the scheme, the Centre provides financial assistance upto Rs 50 crore per Mega Food Park project.

Currently, 18 Mega Food Park projects are under implementation in various states and 19 Mega Food Parks have become functional. There are six of them in the northeast region, of which two are operational in Assam and Mizoram.

What are the salient features of Zoram MFP?

1) The ministry has approved the Mega Food Park in Mizoram to give an impetus to the growth of the food processing sector in the state.

2) The MFP will provide direct and indirect employment to 5,000 people and benefit about 25,000 farmers in the CPC (Core Processing Centre) and PPC (primary processing Centre) catchment areas.

3) The Park will leverage an additional investment of about Rs 250 crore in about 30 food processing units in the park and would eventually lead to a turnover of about Rs 450-500 crores annually.

4) It will benefit the people of Kolasib district as well as nearby districts of Mamit and Aizawl of Mizoram and also districts of Hailakandi, Cachar in Assam.

5) The modern infrastructure for food processing created at the MFP will benefit the farmers, growers, processors and consumers of Mizoram and adjoining areas immensely and prove to be a big boost to the growth of the food processing sector in Mizoram. 

Facilities at Zoram MFP

• Built at a cost of Rs 75.20 crore near National Highway 54 and spread over 55 acres of land.

• Cold Storage - 1,000 metric tonnes (MT)

• Drywarehouse - 3,000 MT

• Aseptic pulp line with canning

• Aseptic and tetra packing - 2 MT/hr

• Ripening Chambers - 40 MT/hr

• Spices drying facility - 2MT/hr

• Food Testing Laboratory

• Administrative building for office and other uses by the entrepreneurs

• Three Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) at Champhai, Thingfal and Thenzawl.

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