First Mega Food Park inaugurated in Una :

1. Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal inaugurated Cremica Food Park, which is  the first mega food park of Himachal, through video conferencing.
2. The park is located at Singan village in Una. It has been set up at a cost of Rs 107.34 crore.
3. This is the first mega food park operationalised in Himachal Pradesh. The inauguration took place in the presence of Jai Ram Thakur, Chief Minister, Himachal Pradesh, and Anurag Singh Thakur, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Hamirpur.
4. The Cremica Mega Food Park will benefit people of Una district and nearby districts of Kangra, Hamirpur and Bilaspur.
5. The park has been set up on 52.40 acres at a cost of Rs 107.34 crore. The facilities, being created by the developer at Central Processing Centre (CPC) of this mega food park, include multi-crop pulping line with bulk aseptic packaging (24 MT/ hour), frozen storage (1,000 MT), deep freeze, dry warehouse, QC laboratory and other food processing facilities.
6. The park also has a common administrative building for the office and other uses by the entrepreneurs.
7.  The mega food park would 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. It would also provide employment to 5,000 persons and benefit about 25,000 farmers.
8. The minister said the modern infrastructure at the park would benefit farmers, growers, processors and consumers immensely and prove to be a big boost to the growth of the food processing sector.
9. The government was fully committed to providing an environment that was smooth, transparent and easy for investors wanting to start an enterprise in India, and in a bid to make India a resilient food economy and the food factory of the world, the government had made food processing a major thrust area of ‘Make in India’.
10. The ministry is focusing on boosting the industry so that the agriculture sector grows exponentially and becomes a major contributor to doubling the farmers’ income and ‘Make In India’ initiative of the government.
11. To give a major boost to the sector by adding value and reducing food wastage at each stage of the supply chain with particular focus on perishables, the ministry is implementing mega food park scheme in the country.
12. In his address, CM admitted that while Himachal Pradesh was known for its fruits and vegetables, the food processing industry was not developed here. He hoped the mega food park would not only ensure a market for the farmer’s produce, but also give them adequate price for their produce.
13. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also announced sops for entrepreneurs setting up units in Himachal till the year 2022.
14. It will not only facilitate the food processing industry but also give a new lease of life to our agrarian society
15. This also lead to invite other entrepreneurs to take advantage of the infrastructure.

Key highlights :

• The Cremica Mega Food Park will benefit people of Una district and nearby districts of Kangra, Hamirpur and Bilaspur.
• The park has been set up on 52.40 acres at a cost of Rs 107.34 crore.
• It will also provide employment to 5,000 persons and benefit about 25,000 farmers.

Mega Food Park Scheme :

Mega Food Park is an inclusive concept and a scheme of the Ministry of Food Processing of the Government of India, aimed at establishing a "direct linkage from farm to processing and then to consumer markets" through a network of collection centres and primary processing centres. Its purpose was to increase processing of perishables from 6% to 20% and to increase India's share in global food trade by at least 3% up to year 2015.

According to an estimate, the Indian food industry was to grow from $200 million USD to $310 million USD in 2015 by this plan.

Highlights of scheme :

Government provides grants up to Rs 50 crores for each food park to a consortium of companies.
30-35 food processing units are expected to be established.
Collective investment of companies is expected to be at least 250 crores.
A turnover of 400-500 crore and employment generation of at least 30000 from each mega food park is expected.

A total of 42 Mega Food Parks have been sanctioned so far by MoFPI in six phases These MFPs are to ensure backward linkages to the farmers, SHGs, JLVs etc. & enhance farmer income. Each MFP is supposed to connect with 25000 farmers Government has envisaged building quality labs at each of the food parks as well.