First Mega Food Park in Odisha inaugurated

Rayagada: The first Mega Food Park in Odisha was inaugurated by Union Food Processing Industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal in Rayagada district on Thursday.

MITS Mega Food Park Pvt. Ltd. at Rayagada has been set up on 50.05 acres of land at a cost of Rs 80.17 crores.

Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti were present during the inauguration.

The Food Processing minister said the ministry is focusing on boosting the food processing industry so that agriculture sector grows exponentially and become a major contributor to doubling the farmer’s income.

Badal said that the Mega Food Park has been set up in 50.05 acre of land at the cost of Rs. 80.17crore.

Government of India has provided a financial assistance of Rs. 50.00 crore to the project, she added.

The food park is having facilities of fully operational industrial sheds for SMEs, developed industrial plots for lease to food processing units, Rice Processing Complex of 12 TPH, Dry Ware-House of 10,000 MT, Cold Store of 2500 MT, Multi Fruit Processing facility and other food processing facilities.

The Park also has a common administrative building for office and other uses by the entrepreneurs and 6 Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) at Kashipur, Padampur, Umerkote, Koraput, Digapahandi and Khordha having facilities for primary processing and storage near the farms.

Badal further said that the Mega Food Park will leverage an additional investment of about Rs. 250 crore in 25-30 food processing units in the park and generate a turnover of about Rs. 450-500 crore annually.

The park will also provide direct and indirect employment to 5000 people and benefit about 25000 farmers in the CPC and PPC catchment areas.