Odisha govt seeks National Institute of Food Processing

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday urged the Centre to sanction a National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTUM) in the state.

“In view of the fast growing agro-food processing sector, there is an imminent need for setting up of a National Institute of Food Processing in the state,” wrote Patnaik to Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

NIFTEM, a centre of excellence under the Union ministry of food processing industries (FPI), has set up its campus at Sonepat in Haryana. The institute offers professional courses in food processing sector and scope for research in the field.

He informed that the state with 10 agro-climatic zones has a huge potential for the food processing sector.

“The state is not only surplus in production of rice, but also has substantial output of maize, horticulture produce, spices like ginger, turmeric and sea food items,” Naveen said.

He said one food park at Khordha is already operational with certain popular food processing units like Britannia, Indo-Nissin, ITC Ltd, Parle Agro, and Coca Cola India.

The MITS Mega Food Park at Rayagada is ready to commence its operations and the Sea Food Park at Deras near Bhubaneswar is at an advanced stage of execution while Eastern Nutriments Ltd is also in the process of development of another food park at Ramdaspur near Cuttack.